Public Input Sought On Upcoming Clemente Bridge Closure, Rehab

PITTSBURGH, PA — Allegheny County's Department of Public Works wants your thoughts on the upcoming rehabilitation of the Roberto Clemente Bridge, which links Downtown with the North Shore at PNC Park.

Public input will be accepted online from July 7 through July 23. People can read a project overview, watch a video presentation and submit any questions or concerns via an online form. Public works representatives or their consultants on the project, Michael Baker International, will respond within three business days of receipt.

The rehabilitation includes structural steel repairs, concrete deck replacement, painting, and bridge lighting.

The project is expected to keep the bridge closed from winter of 2022 until fall of 2023. That could be inconvenient for Pirates fans during the 2023 baseball season, as many walk across the span to get to PNC Park from Downtown.

The Clemente Bridge is the last of the three so-called "sister bridges" over the Allegheny River to be renovated. Work on the Andy Warhol (Seventh Street) Bridge was completed in 2017, and the Rachel Carson (Ninth Street) Bridge reopened in 2020.

The spans were built between 1924-28 by the American Bridge Company. They are self-anchored suspension bridges with eye-bar links. Only two other self-anchored suspension bridges are still in use in the country: the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California, and the William O. Lee Memorial Bridge in Frederick, MD.