Allegheny County will begin overnight work next week to install $6 million of computer-controlled decorative lighting on the three Sister Bridges spanning the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh’s North Side to Downtown.
The county announced Monday that the Rachel Carson Bridge will close weeknights from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning next Monday for installation of the millions of lights for the project. One sidewalk will remain open for pedestrians during the work, which is expected to last for about two months.
The county announced in August that it would take steps through next year to install more than 600,000 LED lights in the bridges. The goal is to use different light patterns and colors to highlight seasons throughout the year to create a tourist attraction.
The project is an outgrowth of an artistic light installation on the Rachel Carson from 2016 to 2018 that was powered using wind turbines. For this project, the county will pay for the electricity to power the lights from its annual budget.
The new lights coincide with the county’s effort to rehabilitate the Sister Bridges — Carson, Andy Warhol and Roberto Clemente — that link Downtown to the North Side. Built in the 1920s, the bridges are among the few groups of nearly identical bridges located within a few blocks of each other anywhere in the world.
Carson and Warhol have been completed, and the work included electrical fixtures to allow installation of decorative lights in the future. When Carson is done, work will shift to the Warhol for the next two months.
The county plans to begin using the lights on each bridge as the work is finished.
The Clemente bridge is still under rehabilitation and will have lights installed before the work is done by the end of 2023.
Mosites Construction and Development Co. is the general contractor of the work, and Thoroughbred Construction Group is the electrical subcontractor.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.