Mayor Bob O'Connor will take a 15-mile, long and winding road through Downtown and Pittsburgh neighborhoods today, making a final journey in the city he loved.

Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Donna Scuilli, a volunteer and church member at St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland, wipes the sanctuary area yesterday in preparation for today's 11 a.m. funeral Mass for late Mayor Bob O'Connor. Click photo for larger image. More coverage Map: Funeral procession route, road closures O'Connor tribute to be reminiscent of Caliguiri's They remember how O'Connor helped, remembered them In Pittsburgh, a confluence of funeral and football More coverage

If the procession moves along at an average speed of 10 mph -- not an unlikely scenario given that thousands of residents and other mourners are expected to be along the route to pay final tribute -- it will take about 90 minutes to go from St. Paul Cathedral in Oakland to the end, Calvary Cemetery.

If the funeral causes short-lived inconvenience on an otherwise busy weekday, people will adjust. Pittsburghers have always been respectful of funeral corteges.

City officials held two meetings yesterday to map out the final plans, under the direction of Anna Dobkin, who coordinated Mr. O'Connor's Jan. 3 inauguration, when the new mayor invited 10,000 people to one of the biggest political celebrations in recent city history.

The same sort of tributes and attention to detail are commemorating his death eight months later.

On a drive previewing the procession route yesterday, business people were seen sweeping their sidewalks, residents were cutting lawns and trimming hedges and dozens of Public Works Department employees were making the way spiffy, trimming grass growing from sidewalk cracks at one place.

A "Redd Up Pittsburgh" placard, signed in memoriam by friends and symbolizing the mayor's populist clean-up campaign, hung in the front window of the modest O'Connor house on Phillips Street.

		City offices closed Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has ordered city offices to close today in observance of the funeral of the late Mayor Bob O'Connor, though essential workers will remain on duty. Police, paramedics, firefighters and refuse collectors will be on duty. Those who work will get an additional vacation day that they can use in the future, according to internal city communications. The city has approximately 3,300 employees.

A Public Works tanker-truck was spraying water on nearby streets while dozens of other city employees were sweeping, cutting, patching and polishing.

U.S. flags were set out on the upper part of Greenfield Avenue, near St. Rosalia Church, his family parish.

A box-type delivery truck was parked along Beechwood Boulevard, near the Browns Hill Road-Hazelwood Avenue intersection. By today, it is to bear a big new sign paying homage to Mr. O'Connor as "King of Redd Up."

Nearby, city workers Rick Rickard, of Perry-Hilltop, and Mike Wieseckel, of Overbrook, were doing just that -- redding up -- at the large flower garden where a Western Pennsylvania Conservancy sign declares, "Saving the place we care about."

"Nobody can ever replace him," Mr. Rickard said while shoveling wood mulch. "What happened is a shame. A tragedy for Pittsburgh."

"A great, great guy," Mr. Wieseckel said. "He'll be missed."

At St. Paul Cathedral, they were doing some redding up of their own yesterday to prepare for the late mayor's final visit. Even as people prayed around them, workers cleaned floors and polished pews, sweeping away grime and dust caused during the church's $8.5 million renovation.

"The cathedral will sparkle [today]," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Ms. Dobkin estimated that 2,500 to 5,000 people will cram into the cathedral, the adjacent Synod Hall, or the sidewalk and street outside the church for the 11 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial, which will be broadcast live by all three Pittsburgh television stations.

The same characteristics that so endeared Mr. O'Connor to Pittsburgh -- his love of family and friends and his inclusiveness -- will be at the forefront in the farewell Mass.

It will feature remembrances and readings by family members and friends and prayers by representatives of other faiths.

Washington, D.C., Archbishop Donald Wuerl, former bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese and Mr. O'Connor's friend, will celebrate the mass. Mr. O'Connor's son, the Rev. Terry O'Connor, will deliver the homily.

Providing remembrances will be Mr. O'Connor's daughter Heidy Garth, his son Corey, his executive secretary and longtime friend Marlene Cassidy, sister-in-law Dee-Dee Pelled, and friend Robert Jablonowski.

Prayers will be offered by Rabbi Stephen Steindel of the Beth Shalom Congregation; Dr. William Curtis of Mount Ararat Baptist Church; Pastor Donald Green of Christian Associates of Southwestern Pennsylvania; Metropolitan Maximos of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh; and Nusrath Ainapore of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh.

Father Lengwin said the diocese had suggested that the Mass be broadened to include representatives of other faiths and that the family had agreed. He said it had done the same for the Mass of the late Mayor Richard Caliguiri and in other cases.

Mr. O'Connor, he said, was not only a mayor for Catholics but a "mayor for the entire community."

Before the conclusion of today's Mass, Archbishop Wuerl also will speak.

Yesterday, Ms. Dobkin, Public Works Director Guy Costa, Police Chief Dom Costa, and other city officials reviewed final details inside and outside of the church, from where family members and friends will sit to parking for the funeral procession, for the final farewell.

Those involved wanted to make sure Mr. O'Connor's send-off will be a memorable one.

"The mayor was stately and dignified and so this should be, too," Ms. Dobkin said. "Everyone's worked tremendously hard on this effort and I know the mayor would be extremely proud of everybody who participated."

Among those who will be volunteering their time this morning are about 20 members of Mr. O'Connor's staff who will serve as ushers at the service.

"They want to do this for the mayor," Ms. Dobkin said.

The procession that will start in a horse-drawn carriage at Freyvogel & Sons Funeral Home in Oakland will end in a motorcade leaving from St. Paul Cathedral probably about two hours after an 11 a.m. funeral mass.

A number of Oakland streets will be closed before and after Mass and eulogies at St. Paul. Then a series of "rolling road closures" will take place while what could be a mile-long motorcade slowly winds it way to Downtown, then along Second Avenue to Greenfield, Squirrel Hill and the cemetery on a hill above Hazelwood.

Parking will be banned after 7 a.m. today on parts of Devonshire, Dithridge, Craig and Neville streets and Fifth and Ellsworth avenues in proximity to the funeral home and church.

The procession will travel the length of Grant Street, a bustling, historic thoroughfare shadowed by Golden Triangle skyscrapers. It will meander through tree-lined roads of Schenley Park, a green emerald in Oakland, and past Murray and Forbes avenue businesses in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood where Mr. O'Connor lived and shopped.

The final resting place at Calvary Cemetery also is where Richard S. Caliguiri, the only other Pittsburgh mayor who died in office, was buried in 1988.

The procession will pause in front of St. Rosalia Church, his house in Squirrel Hill and the City-County Building, Downtown, where he spent time as a council member and president before he became mayor several years later.

At the City-County Building, mourners will pass the bronze statue of Mr. Caliguiri on the portico steps. Mayor O'Connor's funeral ride will be more than three times as long, based on "last wishes" as he fought and then succumbed to a rare form of brain cancer.

The journey will provide a snapshot of the city. Oakland hospitals and universities. Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway. Downtown. Streets he trod, shaking hands with folks from all walks of life.

Second Avenue, where the Steelers' "Big Ben" Roethlisberger was injured this summer and where the Pittsburgh Technology Center holds hope for the city's future.

Then middle-class Greenfield, where he was raised. Schenley Park. His neighborhood. The Coffee Tree. Frick Park. Finally, Calvary Cemetery, where he'll be laid to rest, with only family and close friends at graveside.

Central Catholic and Oakland Catholic high schools, both near St. Paul Cathedral, will be closed so their parking lots can be used for the expected large crowd, including state and national officials.

City public schools will observe a moment of silence but will not be closed.

The Port Authority will detour buses on a number of routes in Oakland and Shadyside beginning at 10:30 a.m. When the funeral procession heads toward Downtown around 1 p.m., service on the East Busway will be interrupted until all vehicles exit onto Grant Street.

While on Grant Street, all traffic will be stopped on the thoroughfare and at the many intersecting streets between Liberty Avenue and First Avenue at the Parkway East exit-entry ramps.

Television coverage of the funeral will begin at 10 a.m. today on KDKA, WTAE and WPXI.