Road to close as crane lifts 30,000-pound MRI scanner into Oakland research institute

Fifth Avenue in Oakland, between Bellefield Avenue and Dithridge Street, will be closed Friday night through early Monday as a crane will be used to lift a new MRI scanner into the Mellon Institute.

Pedestrian traffic also will be restricted 7 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.

Authorities said the 30,000-pound scanner will be lifted eight stories high and lowered into the new facility at the institute, which has been constructed in its courtyard.

The new 3-Tesla Siemens Prisma MRI scanner’s expected to be the centerpiece of a new joint Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh neuroimaging research facility.

Authorities said the scanner will support more than $54 million in ongoing research projects at both schools, including studies on the neural basis of cognition, the developing brain, progression of dementia and the development of cutting-edge brain mapping technologies.