Panther Hollow Bridge to reopen after 2 years as mayor calls for more efficient projects

PITTSBURGH — Not every bridge ribbon-cutting comes with a cameo from a panther mascot. The one in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park Thursday afternoon did.

Armed with giant ceremonial scissors, the Pitt mascot, alongside Mayor Corey O’Connor, engineers and several residents, cut the ribbon stretching across the Panther Hollow Bridge, which closed in October 2024 amid concerns about how much stress the structure could withstand.

Nearly two years and $2.3 million later, the bridge is scheduled to reopen to cars by 8 a.m. Friday, with the mayor and staff pushing to have it open by 7 a.m. for commuters.

“We are committed to this,” O’Connor said. “This is our infrastructure, not just for today or for tomorrow, but well into the future.”

O’Connor’s victory lap was fairly short-lived. Behind the wall of cameras, he could see closure signs and equipment for the nearby Charles Anderson bridge, which is fully shut down and is not expected to reopen until the Summer of 2028.

The sight caused the mayor to again turn his attention to an issue he’s pushing in Harrisburg: the inability for the city to bundle bridge projects together as they work with contractors.

Bundling, known as P3 contracts (public-private partnership), is something PennDOT is allowed to do, and has done to rehab ageing bridges across the state.

O’Connor’s team believes having a contractor oversee several projects from start to finish is more efficient than a traditional project, which the city oversees in conjunction with PennDOT for years until it’s time to bid the physical work to a contractor.

“We are still in an old-school mentality,” he said. “If cities had the ability to do that, we would get ahead of the game and not just put out long-term plans, but actually shorten the timeline on a lot of these projects.”

He did not say how much sooner the Charles Anderson Bridge would’ve been able to open if it was part of the P3 process.

Pedestrians wandering across the Panther Hollow bridge Thursday said they were happy the work was getting done.

“I think it’s great,” Chris Hollingshead said. “Let’s make progress. Let’s fix it all.”

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