Commuters Left Frustrated By Route 30 Closure
Follow KDKA-TV: Facebook | Twitter
EAST PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A section of Route 30 remains closed because it is sinking into a hillside in East Pittsburgh.
The westbound lanes will be closed indefinitely near the Westinghouse Bridge, which is creating a traffic nightmare for some commuters.
"I don't know how they're going to fix that," one man said. "I hope they do because it's going to be a nightmare."
"I know as you're going in it's almost like a roller coaster," another man said. "It's almost like the 'Dukes of Hazzard.'"
The eastbound lanes remain open, but they could also close if the situation gets worse.
Thursday morning's commute featured flares, orange cones and a heavy PennDOT presence in the area.
While the engineers try to figure out what's wrong and how to fix it, all westbound traffic will follow this detour starting in North Versailles:
- From westbound Route 30, all traffic will turn left onto Navy-Marine Corps Way
- Turn right onto East Pittsburgh McKeesport Boulevard
- Turn right onto Braddock Avenue toward E. Pittsburgh/Turtle Creek
- Turn left onto Electric Avenue
- Follow Electric Avenue back to westbound Route 30
- End detour
The detour brings you up onto Route 30 just as the road enters Forest Hills.
Over the past month, the road has been slowly shrinking into the hillside above Electric Avenue.
PennDOT decided to close that section of road on Wednesday.
"The road is just settling too much, and it's creating a traffic concern. So, for safety purposes, the department is closing westbound Route 30 until further notice," PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said.
Crews brought a large drilling unit to the site on Wednesday night, and will begin doing core samples on Thursday in an effort to figure out what's going on beneath the surface.