Pittsburgh’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities are set to begin Saturday.
"Department of Public Safety employees from all of the bureaus have been preparing for months to ensure residents and visitors can safely enjoy the parade and entertainment areas of the city this weekend,” Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said in a press release. “Working closely with the Pittsburgh Police Intelligence Unit, I am confident that the city is hosting a world-class parade in which everyone should feel comfortable participating.”
For more than 150 years, the parade has attracted big crowds. This year, as many as 200,000 spectators are expected to attend. The parade kicks off at 10 a.m. on Liberty Avenue and 11th Street at the edge of the Strip District; staging begins at 26th and Liberty at approximately 7 a.m.
The route proceeds down Grant Street from Liberty and turns right onto the Boulevard of the Allies before ending at Stanwix Street. "No Parking" signs have been placed along the 1.4 mile long parade route. Tagging and towing will begin at 6 a.m. Saturday morning.
Assistant Chief of Operations at Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Richard Ford said that the city is fully staffed for the event.
“We realize that there's there's certain portions of the city that are more concentrated in others, but we will have incident command that will run throughout the day into the early morning hours,” Ford said. “That's not only to monitor Zone 3 and Zone 1, where we have a high concentration of our bars, but also to maintain security for the rest of the city. We feel very strongly about the plan that we put forward.”
Nearly 50 Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus routes will be detoured in response to the parade. Riders will be able to take transfers for free to light-rail cars at Station Square or Penn Station and the bus and rail station along the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway. A free rail shuttle will also be operating between Penn Station and Steel Plaza.
Pittsburgh Police Commander of Zone 3 Jeffrey Abraham said crimes of any kind will not be tolerated on the South Side.
“Officers will be enforcing and not tolerating any sort of crimes of a disorderly nature; this includes, but is not limited to, fighting, public urination, open containers outside of bars, and extreme public intoxication,” Abraham said.
Locations for rideshare pickup lanes on the South Side will be South 18th Street from East Carson Street to Rights Way and 20 to 26 Bedford Square off of South 12th Street to help alleviate foot traffic.
Family-friendly events will be held in Market Square throughout the weekend. Other events including a Pittsburgh Penguins game and a home and garden show will take place Downtown in the afternoon on Saturday, which may also delay traffic.
Starting this weekend and moving forward, Pittsburgh Police will also have a new substation on Mary Street in South Side, which will be open from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. The building will not be open to the public, and it will not be used as a place to hold or detain arrestees but rather a closer station for paperwork near action on East Carson St.
Pittsburgh Police opened a new Public Safety Center on Wood St. in Downtown to address ongoing public safety concerns. The new location has 16 officers, two sergeants, one lieutenant and one commander. The center is open from 8 a.m. to midnight every day. Last month, it was also announced that any calls placed to 911 within city limits between the hours of 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. that are not deemed “in-progress” will be redirected to an automated system.
