Clemente Bridge will be open to vehicles during most 2017 Pirates home games

For the first time in PNC Park's 17-year existence, views from the seats during Pirates games will include cars and trucks on the Roberto Clemente Bridge.

Allegheny County announced Thursday the span over the Allegheny River linking Downtown and the North Shore will be open to vehicular traffic during the majority of Pirates home games this season.

Since PNC Park opened in 2001, the Clemente Bridge — formerly known as the Sixth Street Bridge — closed before, during and after Pirates games.

But with the nearby Andy Warhol Bridge closed for construction, a traffic headache was on the horizon if two of the three nonfreeway bridges connecting Downtown to the North Shore were closed, especially during the heavily congested evening rush hour when thousands were going to the ballpark.

This season, only during Saturday and Sunday games, Memorial Day and Labor Day and on select Fridays will the Clemente Bridge be closed to vehicles.

"Working with the Pirates, we developed a plan that will help to mitigate some of the traffic impacts due to construction on the Warhol Bridge, Parkway North and Route 65, while also maintaining Federal Street events and activities for fans on weekends and holidays," county Public Works Director Steve Shanley said in a statement. "We greatly appreciate the Pirates' and public's cooperation while we rehabilitate the historic sister bridges."

Sidewalks will remain open on the Clemente and Rachel Carson bridges. A steel barrier separates the sidewalks from the vehicle lanes on each.

The Clemente, Warhol (formerly Seventh Street Bridge) and Rachel Carson (formerly Ninth Street Bridge) spans carry a combined 24,000 vehicles — including 806 buses — a day, according to the county. The self-anchored steel suspension bridges were built in the late 1920s and renamed over the past two decades.

The Clemente Bridge was the first to get a new moniker, soon after the Pirates announced they were selling naming rights to their yet-to-be-built ballpark to PNC Bank in 1998. Since, the Pirates have encouraged fans to park Downtown and walk across the bridge as part of the game experience. Family-related activities and concerts are often held on Federal Street at the end of the bridge up to its intersection with General Robinson Street. They will continue to be staged on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Clemente Bridge has gotten plenty of screen time during Pirates games and on highlight shows as the camera pans out for home runs.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.