BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

The Riverton Bridge is supposed to be open on Saturday the 4th of October in time for the Pittsburgh 250 Legacy ride. Construction will not be complete but it should be open.

However, once you get to the Duquesne side of the bridge you'll have nowhere to go. They will be building a flyover to get the trail across the road and connect to the rest of the trail but that won't be ready until at least January.

I haven't seen the layout yet to see if there will be a way to jump a barrier and get on the road from there or not. I was thinking I might go out on Sunday to see.

Where exactly is this?

Let's say that a group of us may or may not be riding to an undisclosed campsite on the GAP trail next week. Where can we cross this? This connects Duquesne and McKeesport?

I traveled from the waterfront to the riverton bridge. There was some asphalt trail then a graded bit of dirt road approaching the bridge. I got on the bridge a bit before I turned around. It seems that there will be no problem on the Duquesne side.

The bridge itself is at 40.35698 -79.84747.

Approaching from your "undisclosed location" you will follow the trail into McKeesport and along Water Street. At the Palisades, you will turn right onto 5th Avenue and follow it for a few blocks. Turn left onto Locust Street, cross the tracks, and you will find some fresh asphalt. This will take you to the Riverton Bridge.

Again, I don't know quite what situation you will find on the other side of the bridge and how easy it will be for you to get onto Rt.837.

Reading BradQ's message again, it sounds like he's coming from the other direction. I don't know the situation coming from Duquesne on Rt.837 and trying to get onto the Riverton Bridge.. I don know that if you succeed in getting onto the bridge, you'll access the asphalt behind the Tube works and turn right off of Locust Street onto Lysle Blvd/Rt.148. Just before the bridge, you'll bear right at the parking lot, down the hill and turn left under the bridge onto Water Street.

There was a ribbon cutting at the Bridge last week - maybe two weeks ago now. It must be officially open. I'll ask around, see if anyone has used it since then....

The ribbon cutting was last Thursday but the bridge will not be officially open until Saturday. And even then there will still be some construction left to be done.

I just got back from a ride from the Waterfront to McKeesport via the Riverton Bridge. It's open and fine! They did quite a bit of work in the short time since I was there last.

This morning (10/11/08) I could not get on the Riverton Bridge from the Duquesne side. There is a chain link fence at that end of the bridge. You can not get around or over it. A couple was walking across the bridge from McKeesport and they were surprised the bridge was blocked too. They had not trouble walking from EchoStar as the trail was open. There were no signs on the McKeesport side saying the bridge was closed.

I imagine it is closed because there is no 'approved' bike trail from Grant Street (in Duquesne) to the bridge. During the week, I think, there is a fair amount of construction in the old Duquesne works and they don't want anyone in there for safety reasons.

Man, that blows! I am going on a two day ride next weekend from Rockwood to Homestead and I need that bridge. It was open the weekend after the 250 anniversary ride thing. I don't get it. I'm going to email the ATA and see if they know who's closing the bridge then I'll contact them - whoever they are to see what the deal is. Thanks for the info, Tim.

There is a link explaining the closure on the atatrail site: http://www.atatrail.org/maps/open.cfm

It's a construction issue on the Duquesne side.

Today, I did go from Boston to the Riverton bridge. You have to hit Lysle Blvd for about a block before you make a left on Locust into the industrial park by Echostar. The new trail runs right along the river and is very nice.