Pittsburgh and Philadelphia seem to be eternally locked in competition.

If one city is in the hunt for the Super Bowl, the other is a contender for the Stanley Cup. If one is up, the other is down. If one scores a win, the other wants to top it. Politics, influence, economy, whatever. The Steel City and the City of Brotherly Love are Pennsylvania’s dysfunctional, squabbling children, and sibling rivalry is part of their DNA.

Who would have thought there could be competition over collapsed bridges?

When Fern Hollow Bridge fell into the ravine below in January 2022, it kicked off a rapid effort to replace it. When it re-opened less than 11 months later, it was remarkably fast, with the process speeded by state and federal attention to infrastructure improvements.

Nothing could be faster, right?

But then a section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia collapsed when a truck crashed and caught fire beneath it. That was June 11. On Friday, just 12 days later, the road reopened, shored up on a bed of lightweight foamed glass aggregate.

“This was a moment of civic pride for Philly and Pennsylvania. We all came together and we proved that we could do big things again in Pennsylvania,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said.

To be clear, this is not a permanent fix. It’s a temporary measure to allow traffic on one of the most heavily traveled roads in the country to flow smoothly rather than be rerouted through time-consuming detours. A permanent solution will be constructed and that will take a lot more than two weeks.

Fern Hollow Bridge is closed again for additional work, like enhancement of the bridge sidewalk and barrier and polyester polymer concrete overlay of the bridge deck. That should preserve the bridge’s longevity.

That should be how the two cities compete now. Instead of which sports team can score the most or how fast a bridge can be built, what if the goal was quality?

Pittsburgh has 446 bridges. Philadelphia has 591. And 26% of Pennsylvania’s bridges are in poor condition, many due to inattention. The infrastructure at either end of the state is critical to Pennsylvania’s economy and trade and transportation across the nation.

The two cities should strive to have the best maintained, safest bridges in not just the state but the whole country.

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