Traffic Woes Expected After 2 Major Road Construction Projects Begin In Pittsburgh Area
ALLEGHENY COUNTY (KDKA) -- Concrete construction barriers were lifted into place on the Business Route 22 exit ramp off the Parkway East on Monday.
The ramp is closed so crews can determine what has been causing the ramp to crumble.
"It's a water problem is what it is," says PennDOT District 11's Assistant Executive for Construction Jason Zang.
The water has been undermining the ramp for some time and crews from Allison Park Construction will dig into the roadbed to find the source.
That process requires the closing of the ramp and detouring the 11,000 drivers who use it every day.
The detour directs traffic to the next Monroeville exit at Route 48.
While the closure is around the clock, Zang says crews will work 10 hour days, six days a week, to finish as quickly as possible.
"We plan to get it done in the next two weeks," Zang said.
That is assuming more extensive issues are not found when the concrete and asphalt are removed.
Meanwhile, frustrated drivers filled the Sewickley Bridge in both directions as traffic was reduced to a single alternating lane.
The single lane is being used in the midday hours so crews can do as much prep work as possible for the main event, which Zang describes as the "full closure of the bridge with a detour."
All of the bridge's expansion dams, as well as the bridge deck, are being replaced. That's why the bridge must be fully closed for 24 days.
Zang says, "They are doing everything they can possibly do to reduce that closure time."
Twenty-thousand drivers use the Sewickley Bridge each day and they will be detoured to the Interstate 79 Neville Island Bridge.
That closure is expected July 17 and will continue around the clock until Aug. 10.