Project Description

The West End Bridge is the first crossing over the Ohio River just downstream from the City of Pittsburgh. The bridge is the western-most portion of a 15-mile trail system and open space area around Pittsburgh’s downtown.

Through a series of projects, the City and its partners aim to connect the West End and Manchester neighborhoods while enhancing the City's waterfront.

Riverlife, a nonprofit committed to improving the city's riverfronts, is investing more than $2 million in design and engineering to create accessible walkways leading to the historic West End Bridge. Riverlife has partnered with architects Merritt Chase and a multidisciplinary team of experts for this transformational project.

This project is a collaborative effort between the City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN), and other partners. The project is supported by the Redevelopment Authority of Allegheny County's Trail Development Fund.

Access Structures


Neighborhood Connectors

Riverlife, in collaboration with landscape architects and urban design firms Merritt Chase and Toole Design, are working with the City of Pittsburgh, ALCOSAN, PennDOT and other key entities to realize The West End Bridge Expansion Project which builds upon the core West End Bridge Connectors and bridge restoration projects. The Connectors project aims to link the West End and Manchester communities to each other, the riverfront and the City of Pittsburgh. The goal of the expansion is to create further connectivity to adjacent communities, parks and trails.

Beginning where the connectors end, this expansion will address barriers created by aging, pedestrian-unfriendly infrastructure and traffic patterns. It will enhance existing infrastructure, repurpose out-of-service railroad infrastructure, and explore other underutilized spaces to provide safer access to regional trail networks for all modes of transportation.

Map showing trail connections from the West End Bridge. It outlines areas being considered for expansion in Manchester and the West End. It shows the West End Trail Feasibility study route, and the North Shore Ecosystem Restoration area in blue.
Map showing trail connections from the West End Bridge to Manchester . Broken orange lines trace North Point Dr. and Reedsdale St. on the north side of the bridge. Solid orgage lines trace the Three Rivers Heritage Trail along the Ohio River and Western

West End Trail

Download Guardrail Design Document open in new window

Past Meetings

On March 13, 2024, Riverlife and El Dorado presented preferred designs for the proposed access structures at the West End Bridge, utilizing public comment to inform direction and goal setting. You can watch the full dialogue in the Youtube video. A presentation document is attached under the "Document Library". Please take a few minutes to offer any additional feedback by answering the four-question survey below.

Public Meeting II (Mar 13, 2024)

On Feb 21, 2023 Manchester Citizens Corporation hosted an action packed community meeting detailing plans in various development phases spanning from the Kamin Science Center to the Esplanade Project just down stream of the West End Bridge.

Riverlife has been working across partnerships and was honored to be part of the lineup of such an action-packed agenda. Riverlife and our architect El Dorado presented the current preferred designs of the accessible structures to connect the West End Bridge to the river path below. You can watch the full meeting in this link: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=410965984679996.

On Dec 4 and Dec 5, 2023, Riverlife hosted two community meetings to discuss three conceptual designs and programming and landscape desires. A recroding is available to revisit the meeting:

Public Meeting I (Dec 4, 2023)