Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 28th Street Bridge Drops to One Lane as Outbound Lane Closes After Inspection

The 28th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, dropped to a single lane of traffic on Tuesday, November 3. The city's Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, known as DOMI, announced on Monday that the bridge would be restricted to one lane traveling inbound and downhill beginning Tuesday. The outbound and uphill lane is closed. The department said the closure follows a bridge inspection carried out in coordination with PennDOT, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

What changes for drivers

The bridge normally carries one lane in each direction, plus sidewalks, between Liberty Avenue in the Strip District and Brereton Street in Polish Hill. From Tuesday, all traffic shares the single inbound lane. The Tribune-Review reported that the restriction comes as the city prepares to refurbish the aging structure, and WTAE Action News 4 also reported the one lane limit on Monday. The city announcement gave no end date for the single lane pattern and named no signed detour, so drivers who use the bridge to climb from the Strip District into Polish Hill should expect the one lane setup to stay in place until the city says otherwise.

A 1931 truss over tracks and a busway

The bridge is not a minor span. PennDOT's historic bridge survey, carried by the Bridges and Tunnels of Allegheny County site, records a 315 foot bridge built in 1931, with a 202 foot rivet connected Parker through truss as its main span and four steel stringer approach spans. It carries 28th Street over three Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, Sassafras Street and a parking lot. The survey notes the current bridge replaced an earlier structure from about 1890 on the same stonework.

A rehabilitation already in the city plans

The lane closure lands on a bridge the city already plans to rebuild or rehabilitate. The 28th Street Bridge project sits in the city's fiscal 2024 to 2029 Capital Improvement Plan, with preliminary engineering first, final design expected across 2025 and 2026, and construction anticipated to begin in 2027, according to the project listing drawn from the city plan. Because the bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, the plan calls for a historic bridge rehabilitation analysis before the city settles on rehabilitation or replacement. The bridge has carried a poor reputation for years. In 2012, Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner stood under it, pulled a piece of concrete from its base by hand, and used it to argue that Pennsylvania had the worst bridges in the country, Essential Public Radio reported at the time.

For now, the change is simple and immediate. One lane is open, it runs inbound and downhill, and the climb out of the Strip District over the 28th Street Bridge is closed until inspectors and the city decide what happens next.