Herbert Mandel photograph (1)
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Herbert Mandel was a civil engineer who directed the design and construction of the Pittsburgh Light Rail Transit System and worked on many other major transportation projects in the United States.
Rose (Schpeiser) Mandel (c1899-1953) and Arthur Mandel (1890-1965) immigrated to the United States from Radom, Poland in the early 20th century, settling in Port Chester, NY. They had two children, Herbert (1924-2023) and Penny (1926-2020). Herbert graduated from Port Chester High School in 1941 and Virginia Tech in 1948 with a degree in civil engineering.
At the age of 19, after completing his second year of college, Mandel enlisted in the United States Army, serving in the Eighth Armored Division, Battery C. He tested into the Army Specialized Training Program and was sent to study civil engineering at the University of Illinois. The ASTP disbanded a few months later, and Mandel was sent to Europe. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, as well as in the Rhineland campaign and other campaigns in Central Europe. He also participated in the liberation of the Langenstein-Zwieberge Concentration Camp in Germany in 1945. After being discharged from the military in 1946, Mandel completed his degree at Virginia Tech and then graduated from Yale University in 1949 with a Master of Engineering degree. Mandel later served as a first lieutenant with the 293rd Engineering Construction Battalion from 1950 to 1952.
Working for Madigan-Hyland on Long Island City, NY in the early 1950s, Mandel was a structural designer for the United National General Assembly Building.
From 1950 to 1986, he worked with the engineering firm Parsons, Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas in New York. Projects included designing the original Talmadge Bridge over the Savannah River in Savannah, Georgia, serving as squad leader for the design of 16 bridges and 11 culverts on I-84 in Danbury, Connecticut, and rehabilitating the Ohio Street Bridge in Buffalo, New York among other projects. While employed with the firm in the early 1960s, Mandel worked on the Robert D. Fleming Bridge (62nd Street Bridge) across the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh. The American Institute of Steel construction selected the project as “the most beautiful steel bridge in its class opened to traffic in 1961.” The following year, Mandel was resident engineer for the planning of the sent to Atlanta, Georgia municipal rapid transit system, later known as MARTA. Other projects included working on an extension of Chicago’s public transit system and the Detroit People Mover. Mandel was project manager for the design and construction management of the Claiborne Pell/Newport Bridge on RI-138 in Newport, R.I., in 1963.
Mandel met Charlotte Feldman (1932-2012) at a party. They married in 1954 at the St. Moritz Hotel in New York City. They had three children, Rosanne, Elliott, and Arthur.
The Mandel family moved to Pittsburgh in 1977, when Parsons opened an office to manage design and construction of the Pittsburgh Light Rail Transit System. Mandel was selected as project director and rose to a senior vice president with the firm. In 1980, Mandel worked on a major rehabilitation of the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas, known for housing a colony of 1.5 million bats. His designed preserved the existing historic arches of the bridge while creating new new concept for bearing the weight of the bridge. Among other projects during the 1980s, he programed the light rail line between Los Angeles and Long Beach.
After the completion of the Light Rail Transit System. Mandel finished his career as vice president of GAI Consultants of Pittsburgh. He was also a founder of the International Bridge Conference and helped plan the annual conference into his 90s.
Herbert and Charlotte Mandel were members of Tree of Life Congregation in Squirrel Hill, Beth El Congregation of the South Hills, and Congregation Ahavath Achim in Carnegie, and were active in community affairs.
