By Ryan Sharrow  – Editor in Chief, Philadelphia Business Journal

Center City will be closed to vehicles for most of Saturday as large planned demonstrations are scheduled throughout the day.

Starting at 11 a.m., vehicles will be prohibited from Callowhill Street to South Street from the Delaware River to Schuylkill River. Interstate 676 will be closed in both directions from I-95 to I-76 starting at 11 a.m.

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway will be closed to cars starting at 5 a.m. from 22nd Street to the Art Museum.

Residents and business owners in cars will need to show identification to police to get through the road closures.

Due to expected demonstration activity in the area of Center City and the Art Museum, SEPTA expects bus routes to be temporarily detoured as streets are closed. Riders are encouraged to check www.septa.org for affected bus routes. The Broad Street and Market Frankford rail lines will continue to run on their normal schedule, except for stations closed due to Covid-19.

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge connecting Philadelphia to South Jersey will remain open and PATCO will run a normal schedule. The bridge closed last Sunday after protests erupted into violence, widespread looting, fires and over 200 arrests the night before.

Philadelphia on Friday remains under a curfew for the seventh straight evening. The curfew runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Saturday. No curfew has been announced for Saturday.

Demonstrations have been underway across the U.S. after a video showed George Floyd, a black man, died after a Minneapolis Police Department officer kneeled on him during an arrest.

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