Feds award $19.3M to rapid bus line project linking Downtown Pittsburgh to Oakland

A rapid bus line linking Downtown Pittsburgh to its Oakland neighborhood will receive another $19.3 million in federal funding.

The allocation was announced last week by the U.S. Department of Transportation to the Port Authority of Allegheny County as part of $250 million in funding made available under the American Rescue Plan.

“We are delighted to provide support for these projects, which will help communities recover from the pandemic and bring public transit to more people in the months and years to come,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

The money builds on nearly $100 million in federal funding the department approved a year ago for the $250 million project, which has been in the works since 2017 and is set to begin construction either late this year or in 2022.

The bus rapid transit project would created dedicated bus lanes running outbound from Downtown along Forbes Avenue to Oakland and back along Fifth Avenue. Three branch lines will extend to Swissvale via a connection in Oakland to the Martin Luther King East Busway, Highland Park and Hazelwood.

The BRT buses will operate seven days a week, arriving about every three minutes during rush hours and up to seven minutes during off-peak hours. The system will have 44 stops, including one on Wood Street, Downtown, where riders can access the Port Authority’s light rail system.

“We are extremely grateful to those who have helped champion this project, both on the federal level and locally, and we look forward to putting the Downtown-Uptown-Oakland-East End Bus Rapid Transit system into service,” Port Authority of Allegheny County spokesperson Adam Brandolph said.

In addition to the federal funding, the project will be funded by about $30 million from Allegheny County, $20 million from Pittsburgh and about $25 million in state money, according to its financial plan.

“We believe that this project will not only improve transportation access but will help spur growth and opportunities throughout the corridor,” Brandolph said.