President Joe Biden was in Pittsburgh Thursday touting his administration's investment into infrastructure.
Biden returned to the sight of the Fern Hollow Bridge construction site, nearly nine months after the bridge collapsed. It served as the backdrop for Biden's 15-minute speech in front of elected officials, first responders and construction crews.
Local and state officials believe the bridge is on track to reopen by the end of the year.
"Pennsylvania has been able to repair the Fern Hollow Bridge in less than a year," Biden said. "By Christmas, God willing, we'll be walking. I'm coming back to walk over this sucker."
Biden used the bridge collapse and reconstruction to illustrate the impact of the bipartisan infrastructure law.
The state received $25.3 million in federal funding to cover the cost of reconstruction.
"[Governor Tom Wolf] knew he could count on the new law to fund other projects and ensure the projects he already started for infrastructure in the state, and not be slowed down in the process," he said.
Biden said Pennsylvania has received $5.2 billion through the infrastructure plan. Some of the money has been used to fund expanded broadband, road improvement projects and construction on a new terminal at Pittsburgh International.
The president admitted there is a lot of work ahead to fix the country's infrastructure.
[The Fern Hollow Bridge] tells a broader story," he said. "There are nearly 45,000, say it again, 45,000 bridges across this country in poor condition. In Pennsylvania alone, there are 3,100 bridges, 7,500 miles of highway in poor condition."
Pittsburgh was Biden's first Pennsylvania stop Thursday. He also attended a fundraising event for U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman in Philadelphia.
