PennDOT Plans 2016 Road Work Near International Airport, On Route 65
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – As PennDOT rolls into 2016, there will be some finishing work on the Parkway West, followed by the reconstruction of the Liberty Bridge deck, the completion of West Carson Street area and major work on Route 65 from the Allegheny to the McKees Rocks Bridge.
But there are two other projects that will have PennDOT's contractors busy in the coming year and will impact 40,000 drivers each day.
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Flying out of Pittsburgh International Airport, the Parkway West/376 project at the airport is in your future for 2016. The 21,000 drivers who frequent that pavement daily know the pleasure of getting their teeth rattled.
"That's concrete pavement," PennDOT Dist. 11 executive Dan Cessna said. "That section of highway was opened in the early '90s."
The wear-and-tear of 20-plus years has taken its toll, so this will be far from a patch job.
"And it's going to be full concrete reconstruction, but we're going to be maintaining two lanes in each direction," Cessna said.
They can do that because, unlike elsewhere, they have the space.
The first work drivers will see is PennDOT coming in to do some shoulder-widening and create more driving surface, but beware – they are going to use split lanes through the construction zone.
"Where, if you want to go straight to Beaver County, you'll take the left lane and you'll have no opportunity to exit the highway. If you take the local lane, you'll be able to use all the exits," Cessna said.
The lane restrictions and changes will begin just past McClaren Road well before the airport and continue 7 and a half miles well into Beaver County starting in March.
"And will continue through all next year and in through all of 2017," Cessna said. "This is a two-year project."
And finally, PennDOT returns to Route 65 for another doozie of a project coming in 2016, this one from the Conway Yard to Rochester.
"The road is in very bad shape," Cessna said.
So PennDOT is talking about a major reconstruction.
"We're going to be milling off existing asphalt, doing concrete patching, full bituminous overlay, in some areas, we'll be doing concrete reconstruction and a lot of bridge work," Cessna said.
And that means a lot of time with only a single lane to travel in each direction in the work zone. Look for the orange signs of spring as soon as the weather breaks. That work will also continue into 2017.