Outside the vicinity, the route journeys northwest as Clairton Road while traversing a rural and mountainous region of Allegheny County.

Upon entering Oakland, the academic and cultural center of Pittsburgh, the route turns north onto Bates Street and right away has an interchange with Interstate 376 (overlapped with US 22 and US 30).

PA 885 then travels along a cliff, parallel to both Interstate 376 and the Monongahela River to the south and enters the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Bluff, also known as Uptown.

PA 885 also passes to the south of Mercy Hospital and Duquesne University before ending at a partial interchange with Interstate 579 and the Liberty Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh.

[9] With the completion of the Penn-Lincoln Parkway East in the late 1950s, US 22 and US 30 were moved off the Boulevard, and PA 885 was extended west a short distance to the interchange near the Birmingham Bridge.

The construction of I-579 in the early 1960s cut the path of westbound Boulevard traffic into downtown;[10] eventually the PA 885 designation was continued west to this interchange.