Millvale, the tiny borough just north of Pittsburgh along the Allegheny River, will be left almost without public bus service indefinitely after a bridge on one of the main streets had a 6-ton weight limit posted on Friday.
The borough posted the limit on the Grant Avenue Bridge over Girty’s Run after a recent inspection by an engineering firm under contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to perform work for smaller communities found deterioration in the structure. The weight limit means the only bus that serves the community, 2-Mt. Royal, now will skirt around the business district using Evergreen Road.
The full closure of another borough bridge on Lincoln Avenue leaves Pittsburgh Regional Transit with no usable path for buses in the business district, said spokesman Adam Brandolph.
“That definitely effectively means we can’t run any buses through there,” Brandolph said. “The detour we would be using is already closed. Even our smallest bus exceeds that weight limit by a lot.”
Millvale officials were unavailable Friday to talk about why the weight limit is needed or what impact that will have on emergency services in the borough, which covers just more than a half square mile and had 3,376 residents in the 2020 census. The borough’s business district has seen some economic growth in the past few years with new bars, restaurants and other businesses moving into the neighborhood.
Brandolph said ridership also has shown growth in the borough in recent years, and about 30 riders a day used the service last year.
“It’s unlikely because Millvale is so small and there aren’t many alternatives,” Brandolph said, “given a day or two or three we could find a route through Millvale, but I wouldn’t want to promise that.”
As a result of the detour, the agency has discontinued seven inbound and eight outbound stops in the borough. The new route has three stops in each direction.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.