Details Of Penguins Stanley Cup Victory Parade Announced
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Fresh off winning their fourth Stanley Cup championship, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced details for their victory parade.
The parade is set to start at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday in downtown Pittsburgh. The team arrived back in Pittsburgh from California late Monday afternoon.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto's office believes as many as 400,000 people may pack downtown Pittsburgh for the victory parade. The parade coincides with the noon lunch hour, and the weather is supposed to be ideal.
The city says the parade will follow a similar route as previous championship parades that took place in 2009.
The route will begin on Grant Street at Liberty Avenue, travel along Grant Street to the Boulevard of the Allies, turn right onto the Boulevard of the Allies and will end at the intersection of the Boulevard of the Allies and Stanwix Street.
A stage will be set up at Stanwix Street for celebratory remarks from Pittsburgh Penguins personnel.
Road closures and parade route barricade installation will begin Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning.
According to city officials, Stanwix Street between Fort Pitt Boulevard and Third Avenue, and the Boulevard of the Allies between Commonwealth Place and Wood Street will be the first road closures put in place ahead of the celebration. Those roads will be closed down at 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Then, on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., the Boulevard of the Allies between Wood and Grant Streets, and Grant Street from the Boulevard of the Allies to Liberty Avenue will close down.
People needing direction on where to park should visit DowntownPittsburgh.com to take a look at an interactive parking map.
"We definitely suggest people explore some public transit options for getting into town on Wednesday, it's going to be a fun day," said Leigh White with Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
The parade will wrap up around 12:30 p.m. and the celebration rally will follow at Stanwix Street and the Boulevard of the Allies.
A similar celebration after the Penguins' 2009 championship - scheduled for exactly seven years to the same day - drew nearly 400,000 fans.
Commuters can expect to see streets beginning to reopen around 2 p.m.
Port Authority bus riders can also expect delays and detours on Wednesday.
Officials say six routes - 20 Kennedy, 21 Coraopolis, 22 McCoy, 24 West Park, 36 Banksville, 38 Green Tree - will be detoured from the start of service Wednesday. Also, most other bus routes will be detoured beginning around 9 a.m.
Regular stops and routing are expected to be restored around 5 p.m.
The Penguins won the franchise's fourth Stanley Cup over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sunday night.
Pittsburgh Chief Operations Manager Guy Costa joined the "KDKA Morning News" to talk about why Wednesday was chosen.
He says that they considered the Penguins returning and, "Some of the players couldn't get back in time," for a Tuesday parade.
He adds they had Wednesday or Thursday to choose from and, "Once we saw the weather forecast [for Thursday we knew it would be Wednesday.]"
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