Important Weekend Driving Info!
Parkway East Closures
We really want all PittStop guests to be forewarned: traffic in Pittsburgh may be especially challenging during PittStop weekend. A section of Interstate 376, the major highway known locally as the "Parkway East", will undergo closings between Oakland and Wilkinsburg from 11 PM Friday night through 6 AM Monday morning, forcing traffic through posted detours along city streets:
- Eastbound lanes, heading out of the city, will be closed from Exit 72 A Oakland to Exit 74 Squirrel Hill/Homestead.
- Inbound lanes will be closed from Exit 78B Wilkinsburgh/Forest Hills to Exit 74 Squirrel Hill.
The detours are shown in this lovely diagram. Our downloadable program booklet includes driving directions that take these detours into account.
Some good news: If you're coming in on Friday night this should not affect you. Even after the closings go into effect at 11 PM, late night traffic should still be light enough for the detours to be manageable. And we hope this will not affect getting around within the city that much either. Finally, the Eastbound detour at Oakland onto Forbes is in fact the normal route to our Oakland venues from that direction.
But the closures will affect folks who have to get into the city via 376 from East or West (though the Ft. Pitt tunnel) on Saturday and -- perhaps to a lesser extent -- on Sunday. With some popular events downtown on Saturday (Pitt football game in the afternoon, Penguins game in the evening) and Parkway traffic detouring onto city streets, there could be significant backups and congestion on 376 leading in to the detour points. Major city avenues such as Forbes and Fifth (which go by our venues) and Penn may also be slow handling the line of detouring highway motorists.
Regrettably, there's not much that can be done to avoid traffic if you have to travel these routes. Our only advice is:
- Allow extra time if coming on these routes.
- Aim to use a traffic-aware navigation app or GPS to find the best route if you possibly can.
- If housing outside the city on these routes, pack to come into town once for the entire day.
- If coming in from the East on the PA Turnpike while the closure is in effect, an option is to continue to Harmarville and enter the city from the North, avoiding most of the mess. A traffic-aware app could advise if this will save you time.
Other Random Closures
If that weren't enough, you might run into these issues:
- The Bloomfield Bridge is reportedly closed to Northbound traffic (from Oakland to Bloomfield). This impacts a major-road route from S&S to the late-night venue -- though that is not in fact the route a GPS is likely to recommend. This would also alter your route to dining establishments in Lawrenceville or Bloomfield.
- The Greenfield Bridge in Squirrel Hill is closed.
- Pitt might close the block of Bigelow Blvd facing the Catheral of Learning tower on Saturday -- but if you've made it that close to Soldiers and Sailors, you're out of the woods!
Venue Parking Tips
Soldiers and Sailors: You can park in the garage directly below Soldiers and Sailors Hall although you can't take your car in and out. For our evening dances, the garage has agreed to stay open past their usual posted hours until 1 AM to allow PittStoppers to retrieve their vehicles. There is no connection from the garage to S&S hall, you have to exit the garage and enter the building from the street. On Friday night a $10 event rate will be in effect because of a U. Pitt basketball game -- and street parking in the area (free after 6PM) may be scarce for that reason. On Saturday the rate returns to the usual $5.
Saturday afternoon, street pay parking kiosks will be in effect until 6 PM. Street parking is free after 6 PM and all day Sunday -- you do not have to put money in the kiosks at those times. HOWEVER: that does NOT apply to privately run metered parking lots (there are a couple near Soldiers and Sailors). These may still be enforced 24 hours, so check the signs.
Rangos: Parking is free on Sunday in the garage near CMU's University Center, but you may have to take a ticket when you enter and use it to exit. Enter off Forbes between Morewood Ave. and Devon Rd. or at Forbes and Beeler. Exit the garage towards the football field and walk to University Center behind the end zone. Rangos Ballroom is upstairs. The garage is unlikely to fill up, but CMU's Morewood lot at Forbes and Morewood is another free option.
Late nights: You should be able to find free parking on the street with a little hunting. Among pay options in the area, there is a surface pay lot by Mullaney's Harp and Fiddle at 24th and Penn and the Cork Factory pay parking garage is available two blocks away at 24th St. and Smallman St.
