North Side street closed for two years until railroad bridge is replaced

A portion of West North Avenue near Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh’s North Side will close Wednesday for up to two years until a bridge over Norfolk Southern railroad tracks can be replaced.

Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure announced that West North Avenue would close to all traffic at the intersection with Brighton Road. The city said a recent “updated structural analysis” of the bridge showed its condition had deteriorated on that side and it should be closed to traffic.

The rest of the small bridge, which carries Brighton Road through the intersection at the corner of Allegheny Commons park, will remain open with a weight limit of 10 tons for single vehicles and 19 tons for combination vehicles.

The bridge is owned by Norfolk Southern and is among a series of bridges that will have their height raised or track bed lowered as part of the railroad’s plan to run double-stacked rail cars through the neighborhood. The new bridge isn’t scheduled until late 2025 or early 2026, the railroad said in a statement.

As a result of the closure, traffic approaching the intersection from Allegheny West or Manchester will be forced to turn right onto Brighton. Motorists can detour around the closure using other parallel streets, Western or Pennsylvania avenues.

Traffic on West North approaching the intersection from Central North Side and Allegheny General can turn left or right on Brighton and use the same detour streets.

The bridge is part of a longstanding disagreement between the city and railroad over the idea of using double-stacked cars in city neighborhoods. The railroad wants that option so it has a second route through this area that can carry the higher trains, but the city objected, and the issue went before the state Public Utility Commission. Through the help of a mediator, they reached an agreement that allows the railroad to raise the height of two North Side bridges and lower the track bed under another in exchange for replacing a pedestrian walk in Allegheny Commons that was removed several years ago and donate  $1.4 million the Northside Leadership Conference and Manchester Citizens Corp.

In its statement, the railroad said it has been working with the city since 2016 on designs for the new bridge and originally had expected to replace it in 2020.

“Due to delays with approval, and then delays related to the pandemic, we are still in the environmental clearance/historic resource coordination process and design phase,” the railroad said. “Following our settlement with the PUC around the clearance project, construction on this bridge cannot start until the Allegheny Commons pedestrian bridge is built. As of now, construction of the W. North/Brighton Bridge is expected to begin in late 2025/early 2026.”