AAA: More Than 39 Million Expected To Travel Memorial Day Weekend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The Friday before Memorial Day is expected to be the busiest travel day of the holiday weekend.
Pennsylvania Turnpike officials expect more than 2 million vehicles will use the toll road over Memorial Day weekend, with 750,000 using the road on Friday alone.
To accommodate the traffic, officials say they'll suspend all construction work on the turnpike from 5 a.m. Friday until 11 p.m. Tuesday.
PennDOT activated its Historic Holiday Travel page, which allows drivers to see how traffic speeds on major highways on the Friday before Memorial Day compare to typical, non-holiday speeds.
AAA expects this to be the busiest Memorial Day travel weekend in the last 12 years.
AAA reports about 39.3 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more this holiday weekend, the most since 2005.
KDKA's David Highfield has more on the Liberty Bridge closure --
Drivers staying in and around Pittsburgh will have to deal with the closure of the Liberty Bridge. It closed at 9 p.m. Friday and not reopen until 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
Crews are reconstructing the bridge deck. While the outbound Liberty Tunnel remains open, only one lane of the inbound tunnel is open, and traffic has to turn right toward the South Side.
Not only is this closure over the holiday weekend, but the Pirates are also in town with games each day over the holiday weekend. And the Penguins will host the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Monday night.
So, why this weekend?
Crews are doing some specific work this weekend that takes longer, and that's why they planned over Memorial Day weekend. As far as the possibility of it ending early, weather of course plays a role in this as well.
So if you were thinking of using the Liberty Bridge this weekend, consider yourself warned.
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