Mayor Hopeful on Versailles Ave. Bridge Funding

City officials asking federal authorities to commit portion of $10M cost

By Jason Togyer
The Tube City Almanac
May 08, 2025
Posted in: McKeesport and Region News

The Versailles Avenue Viaduct, which crosses Ravine Street, closed in 2022. (Tube City Almanac file photo)

McKeesport’s mayor is hopeful that an infusion of federal funding will help the city replace the closed Versailles Avenue Viaduct.

At Wednesday’s council meeting, Mayor Michael Cherepko said city officials have had productive conversations with U.S. Rep. Summer Lee and are scheduling meetings with U.S. Sens. John Fetterman and Dave McCormick.

“Up to this point, the only money that has come into this project has been from the state,” Cherepko said. Funding obtained by retired state Sen. Jim Brewster and the late Rep. Matt Gergely enabled engineering and design work to begin, he said.

“Once the engineering is done, we’re hoping additional funding will come with it, and much more quickly,” Cherepko said.

Unlike most local bridges, the Versailles Avenue viaduct is owned by the city, not the county or state. The estimated cost of replacing the bridge is $10 million. The city’s entire annual budget is about $25 million.

The bridge closed in February 2022 after an inspection concluded the nearly 300-foot-long span was no longer safe. An important connector between Sixth Ward neighborhoods, the bridge was used by more than 4,100 vehicles per day, as well as many people who walked across the bridge to get to public transit, school, the Carnegie Library or their homes.

“We realize the inconvenience is horrible, especially for pedestrians,” Cherepko said. “It comes down to resources. We’re doing everything we can.”

City officials also are lobbying Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Lt. Gov. Austin Davis for additional state support, he said.

The design and engineering work is approximately halfway complete and is expected to be done this fall, Cherepko said. One idea — filling in part of the bridge approaches on each side — may cut the cost of constructing a new span, he said.

Access to Ravine Street, which passes beneath the bridge, would remain open, Cherepko said.

In other business, city council voted 6-0 to proceed with the reconstruction of the Lysle Boulevard parking garage at a cost of $1.9 million. Kucich Construction of McKeesport was the low bidder. Councilman Keith Soles was absent.

Council had previously voted on several occasions to award contracts and proceed with the work. Cherepko said that Wednesday’s vote was a procedural move requested by the state before the project can proceed.

Funding has been provided through a series of PennDOT multimodal transportation grants as well state gambling revenues. The first was awarded in 2018.

All of the funding was previously designated and approved for the garage and no new money was committed to the project on Wednesday, Cherepko said.

The Lysle Boulevard garage has been closed to the public since 1999. City officials want to reopen the facility to serve the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail and the Pittsburgh Regional Transit park-and-ride station, and to spur rentals of vacant property along Fifth Avenue.

“This garage being Downtown, right across the street from the People’s Building, the Executive Building, and next to the park and ride as well, we’re excited about the possibilities,” Cherepko said. “It’s easy for the naysayers to say there won’t be anybody using that garage — well, in that case, why don’t we pack up now?”

Spaces in the Lysle Boulevard garage also are expected to replace those currently leased in the Sixth Avenue Garage. City officials said the Downtown area no longer needs two parking garages, and that the Sixth Avenue Garage requires extensive and costly repairs.

“The Sixth Street Garage is really in horrible condition,” the mayor said. “At some point we will be looking to close that garage permanently, and take that down.”

Part of the PennDOT multimodal transportation funding is also targeted toward improvements to the bike trail, which currently passes directly behind the Lysle Boulevard garage.

Cherepko said the money that PennDOT and other agencies designated for the garage and the bike trail must be used for multimodal transportation and cannot be spent on the Versailles Avenue Viaduct.

“The money was designated specifically for this project,” he said. “It can’t be used for something else.”

Although there were proposals several years ago to elevate a portion of the bike trail, that idea has been scrapped because of the expense and the potential for disruption to operations of Dura-Bond’s electric-resistance weld pipe mill, Cherepko said.

Originally published May 08, 2025.

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