Residents Voice Frustration Over Bridge Delays

Construction of new Versailles Ave. span scheduled for 2027-28, engineer says

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
October 02, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

The Versailles Avenue Viaduct was closed in February 2022, less than two weeks after a similar bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh’s Frick Park. (Tube City Almanac file photo)

City residents vented frustrations Wednesday night at a public hearing to discuss the replacement of the Versailles Avenue Viaduct.

A standing-room-only meeting in council chambers became contentious, as citizens questioned why government agencies moved so quickly to replace other bridges — notably the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh — while McKeesport will have to wait until 2027.

The Versailles Avenue span was closed in 2022, less than week after the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed, after an engineer’s report concluded the bridge was no longer safe for travel. A new Fern Hollow Bridge, which carries 14,000 vehicles a day, opened less than a year later.

“Fern Hollow Bridge happened to collapse the same day the President was in town,” McKeesport Mayor Mike Cherepko said. “It was a whole different set of circumstances.

“Unfortunately, the process itself is frustrating,” he said. “It’s easy for a resident to assume that nothing is being done.”

Jim Shroads, an engineer for Larson Design Group in King of Prussia, led Wednesday’s presentation. Representatives of the state Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration also attended, along with McKeesport City Council.

Shroads said the new bridge will be wider than the existing span, with five-foot sidewalks on each side and a lane marked for bicycles. The bridge will be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and also will include improvements to the intersection of Point Street and Versailles Avenue.

Residents had expressed concerns about the safety of the Point Street intersection, Shroads said.

Eight properties will be temporarily impacted by the construction, he said, and two homes — one on Point Street and one on Versailles Avenue — will need to be torn down.

The homeowners of the Point Street property were at the meeting but declined to speak to a reporter afterward.

The property owners whose homes will be demolished will be contacted by a PennDOT real estate specialist and will receive compensation, Shroads said.

Ravine Street beneath the bridge would be closed during demolition and construction, he said.

Assuming all of the design work is completed in 2026, Shroads said, the old bridge would be demolished and construction would begin in 2027, with completion in 2028.

Although PennDOT is leading the construction project, the city is responsible for the entire cost of replacing the bridge, which Shroads estimated at $9.5 million. The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission recently tagged the replacement at $14 million.

Cherepko said the city has so far raised more than $1 million through state sources and that U.S. Rep. Summer Lee is asking for another $1 million in federal funding. 

“The funds have overwhelmingly come from the state at this point,” he said. “We’re in a situation where the city is not an affluent community, and we don’t have millions of dollars to put toward that bridge. But I’m confident in what Congresswoman Lee is doing, and I’m hopeful we will secure additional funding. I think the ball is rolling in the right direction.”

That process has been too slow, said many of the people at Wednesday’s meeting, some of whom directed their anger at Cherepko, council and PennDOT representatives.

“Personally, I think it’s ridiculous that it’s taken three and a half years for you to even be here,” property owner Glen Jackson told Shroads. “I don’t think $9.5 million should be so hard to fundraise.”

Jackson called the situation a “nightmare” for people who live near Carnegie Library of McKeesport. Other residents expressed frustration that police and ambulance response has been delayed by the bridge closure.

Several people asked why the city could not reopen the bridge for pedestrian traffic, or to one lane of traffic. The condition of the bridge is “very poor” and the condition of the deck is unsafe, Shroads said.

“Every engineer we have spoken to has said it’s unsafe to cross,” Cherepko said. “If you can find an engineer who will sign off on us re-opening it, I will re-open it tomorrow. But God forbid someone falls through the bridge and gets hurt. We will be held responsible.”

Council Member Amber Webb, who lives nearby, said she is one of the residents who is inconvenienced by the bridge closure. “Your frustrations are valid — we hear you,” she said. “It’s been a problem, we’re also concerned, and we’re angry about it.”

Built in the early 1970s, the Versailes Avenue Viaduct is almost 300 feet long and spans Ravine Street between Point Street and Wisp Alley.  An important connector between Sixth Ward neighborhoods, it was used by more than 4,100 vehicles per day before it closed.

Cherepko said the city had investigated whether the bridge could be entirely eliminated and replaced by an embankment and a culvert. Officials were told filling the ravine would be cheaper than building a new bridge, but that no grant money would be available for such a project, he said.

Originally published October 02, 2025.

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