Boundary St. / S Neville St. is a vital connection in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.

Proceeding south from Fifth Ave., S Neville St. descends a ravine with steep slopes on either side, eventually reaching the Panther Hollow section of Oakland. At the corridor's southern end, Boundary St. connects to the Junction Hollow Trail, which provides pedestrian and cycling access to Schenley Park, the Four Mile Run neighborhood, and the Three Rivers Heritage Trail system.

In addition to these important connections, the corridor hosts institutional, residential, and industrial sites. These connections and sites attract many pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.

Despite this corridor's significance to all Oakland residents and students, it lacks a safe connection for pedestrians and bicyclists. Additionally, aggressive driving and speeding pose safety hazards for motorists.

Through past planning efforts including The Oakland Plan led by the City's Planning Department, the community has identified that the Boundary / S. Neville corridor requires improvements to create a safe multimodal connection from Fifth Ave. to the Junction Hollow Trail.

DOMI, in collaboration with the surrounding community and frequent users of this corridor, is developing a streetscape plan to address traffic concerns and ensure safe accommodation for all modes of travel.

This plan will:

• Identify speeding concerns and opportunities for pedestrian safety, bicycle connectivity, and streetscape improvements along Boundary St. / S Neville St. from Fifth Ave. to the Junction Hollow Trailhead
• Develop an implementable, safe, and accessible design for the corridor
• Create cost estimates for the designed project

This plan will not:

• Ensure funding or the city’s commitment towards immediate implementation of the designed project
• Identify transportation projects beyond the scope of the plan

Based on the feedback during phase one of community engagement, designs for the enhancement of this corridor have been developed and are available to view below. Corridor analysis and feedback from public engagement were synthesized into the following core design principles:

• Safety & Connectivity: Create a safe, multimodal connection linking 5th Avenue to the park.
• Access & Operations: Retain two-way access along the corridor and ensure CMU loading activities can continue without disruption.
• Feasibility: Minimize earthwork, utility relocation and rail road conflicts to maintain financial feasibility.
• User Experience: Enhance the overall road user experience for all modes of transportation.
• Preservation: Retain and build upon successful existing features, such as current traffic-calming treatments, within the new design.

On October 28, 2025, the project team at DOMI, the Office of Neighborhood Services, and the project team consultants held a community meeting at the Cohon University Center on the CMU campus.

The project team discussed the history of the corridor, the safety issues reported by users of the corridor, and the proposed alternatives that have been designed based on the feedback received from community input during phase one engagement that ran from February - May 2025 including a community walk-through that took place in April 2025.

A recording of the meeting can be viewed by clicking below. The slide deck can be viewed and downloaded by visiting the "document library" section on this page.

The first phase of public engagement was held from February 24 - May 5, 2025. During this phase, we received over 400 online comments! A few key statistics about who submitted comments include:

• 45% of commenters said they use this corridor weekly
• 82% of commenters said they cycle on this corridor
• Most commenters said they use the corridor in the mornings and evenings
• Commenters said the following about where they're going when they use the corridor:
  • 88% said they are accessing recreational destinations
  • 45% said they are going to work
  • 11% said they are going to school

Comments highlighted the many challenges to safe mobility on the corridor. Here are some of the key challenges that we heard about:

• Steep grade and narrow roadway
• Lack of safe pedestrian route
• Drainage issues, potholes, and debris
• Disconnected bike infrastructure
• Hazardous skewed railroad crossing
• Poor lighting
• Overgrown vegetation
• Speeding and aggressive driving

On April 22, 2025 the project team conducted a walkthrough of the corridor with representatives from community stakeholder groups.

In attendance were representatives from Central Catholic High School, University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, the Bellefield Boiler Plant Consortium, Oakland Planning and Development Council (OPDC), the Oakland Transportation Management Association, BikePGH, City Council Districts 3, 5, and 8, as well as staff from DOMI and the Department of City Planning.

On the walkthrough, we discussed issues including:

• Speeding
• Pedestrian and cyclist safety
• Loading and delivery operations
• Student pick-up and drop-off
• Current and upcoming institutional development plans adjacent to the corridor
• Right-of-way ownership
• Drainage concerns

The planning team collected vehicle counts and speed data in March of 2025 to help guide the design process.

To address the significant crash history at the intersection of Fifth Ave and Neville St, the planning team has developed several proposed changes. The following are some of the key changes being proposed:

Fifth Avenue:

• Add left turn lanes and left turn signal phase
• Add parking/loading
• One travel lane in each direction

Neville Street:

• Add climbing bike lane
• Remove downhill parking and provide shared lane markings

Proposed changes can be viewed below. A PDF file of the design is also available to download in the Document Library on this page.

From Fifth Avenue south to the railroad crossing, a continuous climbing bike lane is proposed. Where sidewalks are not currently present on both sides of the street, new sidewalks are also proposed to be added. To accommodate these improvements, on-street parking along the western side of S Neville St will need to be removed.

Click each image below to expand the photo

The planning team has developed two design alternatives for the section of the corridor between the railroad crossing and Joncaire Street.

View the proposed alternatives below and share your feedback through a short survey below. PDF versions of both alternatives are also available for download in the 'Document Library' on this page.

Due to the existing low-speed residential context, the stretch from Joncaire St south to the Junction Hollow Trail Entrance is not proposed to have significant changes. Interventions along this stretch of the corridor are proposed to be limited to the city's typical neighborhood traffic calming design treatments.

Each alternative offers its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The following are some of the key comparisons that the design team has considered with each alternative. How do you think they compare? Which do you prefer? Share your thoughts in the survey below!

This survey closed on November 12, 2025