For the last decade, North Siders who use Allegheny Commons Park have lamented the condition of their bridge to nowhere -- a fenced-off pedestrian span over Norfolk Southern railroad tracks that has been dropping chunks of concrete and nurturing weeds.

This impasse for residents has also become an impasse for the city.

At a meeting of the Historic Review Commission this week, residents and members of a park restoration group assailed the city's request to demolish the bridge without a plan to replace it.

The commission, whose member Ernie Hogan said it is "imperative to preserve that element," tabled the demolition request until January.

In the meantime, city Public Works officials and the park's historic restoration group are expected to work together on a bridge replacement plan.

Allegheny Commons Park is a city-designated historic site, through which railroads have been granted easements by first Allegheny City and later Pittsburgh, which annexed Allegheny City in 1907.

The tracks that cut through the park run about 15 feet below grade; they were lowered in the late 1800s. The current pedestrian bridge was built in 1906.

Paul Tellers, a member of the Allegheny Commons Initiative steering committee, whose long-range plan is to return the park to its historic environment, said the bridge is not just historic "but a connection between neighborhoods" and part of a design that stands in good stead with current urban planning standards that honor pedestrian access and healthy design standards.

The city ought not negotiate away its right, even without funds available now, he said. "The city has to reserve the right to replace the bridge and get it in writing" during negotiations with the railroad.

Insufficient maintenance over the years has caught up with the city, leaving it in a quandary of what do with the bridge.

The city and the railroad have discussed the bridge for more than a year, said said Pat Hassett, assistant director of Public Works for transportation and engineering, "but no one wants to quantify the risk" for legal reasons.

The city has asked the railroad for a risk assessment, but Norfolk Southern has not responded to that request, Mr. Hassett said.

"Why ask us for a risk assessment when the city owns it?" said Rudy Husband, a spokesman for Norfolk Southern.

The city, as owner, would pay for the demolition, Hassett said, the work would be done by the railroad.

At the podium, her face flushed, Alida Baker, head of the restoration effort, enunciated with frustration when she said, "That bridge is part of the park design dating to 1868. It is the only link in West Park and must be maintained."

Mr. Hassett said he "would very much like to have the bridge replaced, but I have no money to do it. I have 120 bridges and two engineers."

He estimated the cost of demolition and replacement would be between $1.5 million and $2 million, in part because it -- unlike the current bridge -- would need to be built so that people in wheelchairs could cross. The city's entire bridge maintenance and repair budget this year is $1.1 million, he said.

The city's only leverage in negotiations is to keep the bridge intact, said John DeSantis, a resident of Allegheny West and a former chair of the Historic Review Commission.

"This bridge is under your protection," he told the commission. "If any other property owner of an historic structure requested a demolition, you would ask what they will do to replace it. That is a question you should ask the city."

In suggesting the commission table the demolition request until a plan can be devised, Chairman Michael Stern said he does not want to merely remove a problem. "If we approve demolition, a problem just goes away. I agree with the public that [without a plan], once it comes down, nothing will happen."

The city's request was the latest measure in a "chipping away" of the park, said Ms. Baker. Duquesne Light has a pending request to place a cooling station on the park's eastern end. That quadrant is restoration group's current fund-raising commitment. Plans are to light the north-east part of the park, landscape for the farmer's market, improve pathways and return the grand fountain to the corner across from Allegheny General Hospital.

"What we need for the bridge right now is a commitment to replace it," said Ms. Baker. "There might be [separate] funder who would want to do that."

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