Bridge detour causing confusion, frustration for commuters

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh travelers are seeming to have a difficult time navigating the detour for the Charles Anderson Bridge.

The bridge, which connects South Oakland to Schenley Park, closed suddenly for repairs two weeks ago.

South Oakland resident Mark Oleniacz contacted Channel 11 seeking help. He previously had reached out to city officials, requesting better signage for the detour, but didn’t see results.

Oleniacz lives close to the Oakland side of the bridge and said the confusion surrounding the outbound directions is posing a safety concern.

“My major concern is just people getting lost... and they’re winding up in the neighborhoods,” he said. “When people are getting lost, they’re distracted, because they’re trying to figure out where to go.”

Channel 11 traveled the inbound detour while using the listed turns spelled out by the city.

The first turn is a right from the Boulevard of the Allies onto Bates Street. We only saw one sign just a few yards prior to Bates.

“This is a highway,” Mark said. “If people are going even 25, 35 miles per hour and there’s somebody on that [right] side of them, they don’t see that sign.”

From there, we had trouble following the signs through to the end of the detour. On Bates Street, there are signs for a separate detour, including one that indicates the detour has ended.

As we continued on the route, we found a missing street sign at one turn, and “truck detour” signs that caused confusion.

Oleniacz said that a city employee told him a traffic group is working to “improve upon the detour route,” but nothing has changed since.

Channel 11 has reached out to the Mayor’s Office for comment, and to see if more signs are set to be placed along the route. We had not heard back at the time this article was published.

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