Norfolk Southern Rail Co. has completed the design of four projects in Pittsburgh needed to run trains with double-stacked freight cars through the city and expects to begin work on two of them this year.
But that doesn’t mean the railroad will begin running double-stacked trains any time soon because many more changes will have to occur to create enough room for the higher vehicles.
The city issued a news release Friday announcing designs have been finished for three projects to accommodate the higher trains: raising the height of the West North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue bridges on the city’s North Side and changing the design of the Amtrak station on Liberty Avenue, Downtown. The railroad also has finished the design for a new pedestrian bridge through Allegheny Commons on the North Side, a key project for residents concerned about allowing the heavier, noisier and potentially more dangerous trains to run through the city.
Those projects were part of a public process involving the city, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and North Side groups because the railroad has received a state grant of $20 million to help pay for $28.3 million worth of work.
Initially, the 2017 grant included 14 projects throughout Allegheny County, but increased costs and changes in the scope of work have reduced the grant work to four projects. The railroad already has done some of those other projects — removing the small Overland Street Bridge between Braddock and North Braddock, for example — but other projects haven’t been completed yet.
Another North Side facility, the tracks under the Columbus Avenue Bridge, originally was scheduled to have the tracks lowered under it to create more room for double-stacked cars, but the railroad will do that work without money from the grant.
“This doesn’t mean that double-stacked cars are around the corner,” said Rick Belloli, an adviser to North Side community groups and a principal with Q Development that recently renovated a former International Harvester building into an apartment complex at West North Avenue.
“There are still other bridges that have to have work done on them. This is a long-term transition process for the railroad.”
The railroad referred questions about the timetable for double-stacked cars to the city. Mayor Ed Gainey’s office said it didn’t have any information on when that might begin.
Norfolk Southern has one line with double-stacked cars that runs through Pittsburgh’s South Side, but it wants to establish a second route for redundancy when there are derailments or maintenance projects that cause delays. The railroad has said the projects would allow it to increase the trains through the North Side from 20 to 25 a day to 40 to 50 a day after it shifted some double-stack trains from the current, longer route through the South Side.
The Northside Leadership Conference, Manchester Citizens Corp., Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and others got involved because they were concerned about the physical changes the railroad work could make in five historical districts that come together in the neighborhood. Others expressed concern about the potential danger from running double-stacked freight cars — including some with hazardous materials — through heavily populated neighborhoods and business districts.
Belloli said the neighborhood generally is satisfied with the final designs. Through formal mediation and negotiations, the railroad agreed to install a new pedestrian bridge in Allegheny Commons and made changes from the original design to allow better access to businesses near the West North Avenue Bridge.
The initial railroad designs “left a fair bit to be desired,” Belloli said. He credited neighborhood groups — many of which have different interests — for working together to make sure the final products match the historical elements of the neighborhood.
“It’s definitely making lemonade out of lemons. The North Side community just really deserves credit for working together,” Belloli said. “Everybody recognized they needed to stay together to get what they wanted.”
Road safety concerns due to the inclines increasing on the approaches to bridges have generally been resolved as well with PennDOT’s involvement, Belloli said. That, too, was a challenge because the West North bridge had its height raised twice before for railroad work.
“No one would design anything like this today, but we did the best we could with what we had available,” Belloli said.
Belloli also had personal involvement in the bridge work because Q Development converted the former International Harvester building near the West North Avenue Bridge into an apartment complex known as the Allegheny Branch House Lofts after the bridge project was announced. The company “had a lot of back and forth” with the railroad to get the best results for its project, he said.
The railroad will be in charge of construction during the projects, but the public bridges will be turned over to the city after the work is finished. Here are the details for the work on the four projects that will be partially paid for with grant money:
- Allegheny Commons Pedestrian Bridge — Allegheny Commons Initiative and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy joined forces to push this project to replace a pedestrian bridge that was closed around the turn of the century and removed in 2013. The bridge on the west side of the park is needed so visitors can cross above railroad tracks embedded below the surface in the late 1800s and early 1900s. About 15 years ago, the two groups hired architects Sarah Thompson and Paul Tellers to develop a concept for a new bridge, and the Buhl Foundation gave them a grant recently to re-engage them to update that design. Belloli described the new pedestrian bridge as “a modern rendition of what was there before,” with 6-foot paths that meet ADA requirements approaching oval plazas at each end that will have four ornamental lights. The bridge will be a steel through-girder superstructure similar to the nearby West Ohio Street Bridge the city built a few years ago and have a vertical clearance of 21 feet, 4 inches. Construction is expected to begin in the spring, and access on North Avenue across from Buena Vista will be closed during construction.
- Amtrak Station — Construction is expected to begin in late spring or early summer on the nine-month project to trim beams and make other changes to the station to allow the higher, double-stacked cars to pass through. That work should cause minimal disruption for Amtrak passengers.
- West North Avenue Bridge — This bridge, which is partially closed due to deterioration, is scheduled to be replaced with a single-span reinforced concrete spread box beam structure in spring 2026, after the pedestrian bridge is done. The new bridge will be 2 feet, 6 inches higher than the existing structure, which will include raising the incline on streets and sidewalks, too, but lane configurations will remain the same. Work will include creating planting areas at West North and Brighton avenues.
- Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge — The railroad will replace this bridge with a new one that will be 2 feet, 9 inches higher. The new bridge, scheduled to begin construction in spring 2027, will be a single-span steel pony truss structure.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.