Great Race, Oktoberfest close Roberto Clemente Bridge

The Roberto Clemente Bridge will be closed for most of the next two weeks. Unfortunately, it’s not because the Pittsburgh Pirates have playoff baseball games to play.

Instead, the bridge between Downtown Pittsburgh and the North Shore at PNC Park will be closed from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday for the Dollar Bank Junior Great Race. That will allow parents to join their children 5 to 12 years old for a 1-mile family run that includes running across the iconic bridge.

Then the bridge will close again from 9 a.m. Monday through 4 p.m. Oct. 14 for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s Oktoberfest Pittsburgh. A key feature of the event, which runs from Oct. 2-12 on the bridge and Fort Duquesne Boulevard, will be a 60-foot Ferris wheel that will operate on the bridge.

For both events, traffic will be detoured one block upriver to the Andy Warhol Bridge.

Other weekend roadwork changes for this weekend include:

• Interstate 79 – The Neville Island Bridge across the Ohio River between Route 51 in Neville Township and Route 65 in Glenfield will have rolling single-lane restrictions in each direction from 5 p.m. Saturday to 11 a.m. Sunday. During that time, crews from Lindy Paving will conduct LiDAR scanning of the bridge deck. The work is part of the $43.9 million project to improve the “S” bend area of the highway and three ramps at the Route 51 interchange.
• Harts Run Road – The road in Indiana and Hampton townships will have single-lane alternating traffic between Route 8 and Saxonburg Boulevard starting Friday and lasting through mid-November. Crews will work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, including weekends, to improve drainage, survey the area, and mill and pave the roadway. Flaggers will help motorists get through the work area.
• Parkway East – Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction from 6 a.m. to noon Sunday while crews inspect the Frazier Street Bridge. The bridge is between the Oakland on-ramp and the Squirrel Hill-Homestead interchange.
• Interstate 279 – Crews will work 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. to lay down high friction surface Friday through Oct. 3. The treatment is used where hard braking has smoothed the road surface to reduce the traction vehicles can get on the highway, especially in wet conditions.
• Fort Duquesne Bridge – Single-lane restrictions will occur from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday on the southbound ramp from Interstate 279 to the bridge’s lower deck and from the bridge’s upper deck to northbound I-279. The ramps will remain open.