Last November, the walk from Squirrel Hill down to the Monongahela had an end date. On November 24, 2025, PennDOT closed Commercial Street/Forward Avenue and the Nine Mile Run Trail beneath the I-376 Commercial Street Bridge. That stretch stayed shut until February 13, 2026, a week later than planned because winter weather pushed the schedule.
This fall is different. Over the weekend of October 16 and 17, crews did the final paving and moved Commercial Street back to its original alignment. As of mid-October, PennDOT has announced no other closure for the trail. For more than a year, the bridge's construction schedule has decided whether the lower end of Frick Park connected to anything. That schedule now has no dates on it that touch the trail.
The year the bridge set the trail's schedule
The $95 million replacement started in June 2024. It is one of the largest lateral bridge slides ever done in Pennsylvania, and it sits right on top of the spot where Squirrel Hill South's park trails meet Swisshelm Park and the river. For anyone who walks lower Frick, the dates that mattered were these:
- November 24, 2025 to February 13, 2026. Road and trail closed beneath the bridge through the winter, a stretch when PennDOT also scheduled bridge beam deliveries. The reopening came a week later than first scheduled.
- June 29 to August 3, 2026. A closure that ran around the clock, from the Nine Mile Run parking lot in Swisshelm Park to Frick Park's Commercial Street lot. It covered the explosive demolition of the old bridge on the morning of July 16 and the slide of the new 22-million-pound span.
- July 27, 2026. The Parkway reopened a full week early. The road and trail beneath it stayed closed for another week.
- October 16 to 17, 2026. A final 24-hour closure, from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 p.m. Saturday, for paving and the realignment.
The summer closure showed how much depends on a few hundred feet of trail under one bridge. The trail stayed open on each side, but BikePGH reported that anyone who wanted to cross had to turn back or climb Commercial Street. For cyclists, its suggested detour was Parkview Boulevard through Summerset at Frick. Drivers had a bigger loop. PennDOT sent them from Whipple Street to Monongahela Avenue, South Braddock Avenue, Forbes Avenue and Beechwood Boulevard before they got back to Forward Avenue.
What the October weekend actually finished
PennDOT's October 13 notice said the crews would "perform final paving operations and realign Commercial Street back to its original location." The earlier closures made room for building. This one put the road back where it ran before the work started. The project page was updated October 16 and lists Commercial Street/Forward Avenue and the Nine Mile Run Trail as reopened.
The project as a whole isn't done. PennDOT still expects it to wrap up in summer 2027. Its other recent notices are about lane restrictions on the Parkway itself, including nightly restrictions that began the weekend of the paving. None of those notices has scheduled another closure under the bridge. "No closure announced" isn't a promise for the next nine months, so the project page is the place to check before a long run or ride.
The route, now that it connects again
PennDOT's notices give the closed section as running from the Swisshelm Park lot to Frick Park's Commercial Street lot. Those two lots are the most useful ways onto the trail, and the reopened section links them again.
From the Commercial Street lot in Squirrel Hill. This is the closest start from Squirrel Hill South. The Nine Mile Run Trail follows Nine Mile Run, a tributary of the Monongahela, for 3.5 miles. Frick Park runs all the way from its Point Breeze side down to the river. This lower stretch is the restored Nine Mile Run valley beside Summerset at Frick Park.
From the Swisshelm Park lot. This is the other end of the section that closed. Coming from here, you pass under the new bridge going north toward Squirrel Hill instead of south toward the river.
From Duck Hollow. The Duck Hollow trail access and parking area is entrance 8 on the park map, and it puts you on the river. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy describes two options from there. One is a natural trail that heads upstream along the Monongahela past the mouth of Nine Mile Run. The other is the paved Duck Hollow Trail, which runs about a mile downstream on flat ground.
The trail you're walking on is itself fairly new. The Conservancy rebuilt it and repaired sections that storm flows had damaged, and that work finished in 2021. It's in good shape. The problem these past two seasons was the bridge work at its middle.
A November in lower Frick that isn't a detour
The reopening matters most in the stretch of the year that was closed last time. From late November through mid-February, a walk from Squirrel Hill down to Duck Hollow meant going around the bridge, or ending at it. This year the lower park has a full fall calendar, and you can get there directly.
- Saturday, October 31, 5 to 7 p.m. Before the trail weekend, there's Uncover Squirrel Hill's Business District Trick or Treat on Forbes and Murray avenues, extending to Forward Avenue. Follow Forward far enough and it becomes the road that just reopened under the Parkway.
- Saturday, November 7, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. UpstreamPgh's Fall Stream Sweep meets at the Lower Frick Park Play Area. Volunteers pick up trash in and around Nine Mile Run.
- Saturday, November 14, 10 a.m. to noon. UpstreamPgh's Frick Park Fall Planting, also at the Lower Frick Park Play Area. The organization calls it "the final Frick Park workday and final volunteer workday of the year."
- Saturday, November 14, 1 to 3 p.m. The same afternoon, the Frick Environmental Center at 2005 Beechwood Boulevard hosts Discovery Time: Fun with Senses. The planting and this program fit into one Saturday, with the morning at the bottom of the park and the afternoon at the top.
- Sunday, November 15, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Restorative Yoga with Mindful Self-Care at the Frick Environmental Center.
The two UpstreamPgh workdays are part of a longer arrangement. Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy says it works with Upstream Pittsburgh through Urban EcoStewards, volunteers who remove invasive plants, care for trees and clear trash along Nine Mile Run. Once the November 14 planting ends, that program's calendar is done for the year. For the first time since the bridge work began reaching down to the trail, nothing scheduled on the road above is set to close it after that date.
Planning the next nine months
Until summer 2027, the bridge remains an active work zone, so its notices are worth reading. Closures under the bridge have come with lead time. The summer closure was announced on June 17, twelve days ahead. The October paving was announced on October 13, three days ahead. Each notice named the same endpoints, the Swisshelm Park lot and the Commercial Street lot, and the same detour. Before a long weekend loop, look at PennDOT's news and press releases page for the project. Every closure under the bridge this past year appears in that list.
As things stand, the route from the Commercial Street lot through the valley and under the new bridge out to Duck Hollow is open the whole way. This time last year, it was weeks from closing for the winter.
At Allison Pochapin, we keep track of the changes that shape everyday East End routines, like whether the trail at the bottom of the street goes all the way through. If you'd like to talk over how projects like the Commercial Street Bridge affect daily life on your block, we're glad to have a calm, unhurried conversation. Schedule a consultation whenever it suits you.