A transportation study shows 7,400 Steelers fans will reach Heinz Field by using the pedestrian walkway on the Fort Duquesne Bridge and descending steps into a parking lot.
That's OK before games, when people arrive on the North Shore over an extended period of time. After the game, however, there's certain to be a crowd at the bottom of the narrow steps which are unable to handle a surge of so many people in a hurry to get home.
The ramp from the Fort Duquesne Bridge walkway to old Three Rivers Stadium Gate C was in service only eight years before it was demolished earlier this year when Three Rivers Stadium was brought down..
While the 30-year-old steps are still there and open, they don't have nearly the capacity to handle pedestrian traffic as the former Gate C ramp. Fans should consider the Roberto Clemente/Sixth Street Bridge, which will be closed to vehicles, as a pregame and postgame option.
The Sports & Exhibition Authority awarded a $286,000 to WEC Engineers in December 2000 to design a new ramp, which will accommodate wheelchairs. The concept is going through a complex approval process for the design and funding.
Once all the hurdles are cleared, construction of the estimated $1 million ramp is expected to take six or seven months.
"We're counting on it being finished in time for next Steelers season," authority spokesman Greg Yesko said. "It just wasn't possible to have it ready by now."
The North Shore connector with the Fort Duquesne Bridge may be dual ramps --- one linking the walkway with the expanded riverfront park along the north shore of the Allegheny River, the other one touching down north of Stadium Drive to skirt vehicle-pedestrian conflicts and to serve both new sports venues.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation originally built the walkway along the lower deck of the Fort Duquesne Bridge as an emergency walkway for the Interstate 279 facility.
Because its popularity grew as an alternative route between Downtown and Three Rivers Stadium, officials convinced PennDOT and the Federal Highway Administration to agree to a widening project.
It took years of approvals and involvement by a myriad of government agencies before the ramp was built at the north end of the bridge to Gate C. It took six more years to finish the second phase, the $2.9 million widened walkway on the bridge and a ramp into Point State Park.
Bridge walkers will have to step it up 
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