Free Republic

Eleven months after a catastrophic collapse into a Frick Park ravine, a new Fern Hollow Bridge was celebrated Wednesday as a model of unprecedented intergovernmental cooperation and an engineering marvel, completed in the fraction of the time needed for similar projects. Final railing installation work continued as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and other elected officials gathered in the cold sunshine for a ceremonial ribbon-cutting at the four-lane Forbes Avenue span, which links Regent Square and surrounding neighborhoods to Squirrel Hill. The bridge could be open for traffic as early as Thursday, but the completion date PennDOT...

Officials are opening for public review the plans for a magnetic-levitation train from Pittsburgh to Greensburg, marking another tiny step forward for the decade-long project. The final environmental impact statement for the proposed $5.3 billion, 54-mile Pittsburgh Maglev project was posted for public review and comment Thursday at the Port Authority of Allegheny County's office and at www.portauthority.org. The authority is managing public funding for McKeesport-based Maglev Inc. but has no role in planning or building the train. Maglev Inc. President Fred Gurney said he was waiting for federal officials' go-ahead before taking the environmental study to the public, and...

A motorist believes the constitutional right to free speech includes obscene hand gestures. Thomas Burns, of New Castle, contends he was denied his First Amendment free speech rights when he was cited for giving an obscene hand gesture to a construction worker in April, according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Pittsburgh. Burns had become frustrated with a traffic delay and showed the gesture at a construction worker. The worker reported it to a police officer, who cited Burns for disorderly conduct, according to the lawsuit. The citation was dropped, but Burns filed a lawsuit because he believes he...