PennDOT Prepared For Major Projects In 2015
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The story of 2015 road construction in PennDOT's District 11 starts with this:
"There will be no construction on 28, no construction on the Parkway East, no construction on I-79 and 279," said Dan Cessna.
So if not on these major roads, then where?
PennDOT will focus on the Parkway West from Interstate 79 to the Fort Pitt Tunnels, and it's going to cause a lot of inconvenience for drivers.
This year's lane restrictions through the Carnegie area were just the warm-up act for similar driving challenges along that entire route, and even closures of the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
But the Parkway West isn't alone in welcoming the orange barricade brigade in the coming year.
PennDOT has big plans for Route 51 and it extends far beyond the intersection with Route 88.
This will mean miles of work and somewhere along the way, the closing of northbound Route 88 for quite a while in the final stretch before Route 51.
And the big attention grabber will be the Liberty Bridge.
"We're definitely going to have a major impact on traffic using that corridor," said Cessna. "Because this is a project you can't do at nights or weekends. We're replaying the deck and it's going to require major restrictions."
UPDATE (Dec. 26, 2014) --
Back to the Parkway West; get ready for a spring, summer and fall full of driving challenges.
"From the I-79 interchange right to the mouth of the Fort Pitt Tunnel," says Cessna.
Even before the weather breaks the Fort Pitt Tunnel closures will return with two full weekend closures in January and two in February - one tube at a time - as the rest of the false ceiling comes down.
Then, comes will the moving of conduits and technical stuff overhead.
"That takes considerable amount of time where we would have overnight restrictions in one direction or both over the remainder of the summer," Cessna said.
As soon as spring arrives, look for the Carnegie squeeze play to return and the ramps to close again.
"All of the bridges in the Carnegie interchange are going to get new decks," said Cessna.
And the squeeze play featuring those narrowed shifting lanes will spread out from Carnegie to 79 in the west, and to the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
"So that we can replace the shoulders, and then shift the traffic and replace the median barriers," Cessna said.
It's a monumental amount of work that PennDOT plans to do while keeping two lanes open in each direction during the peak travel times.
So for that to happen, Cessna says, "We would expect to close the Parkway West in one direction or another, not both, definitely on weekends, and we expect some overnight closures also. Certainly, there will be closures of the Fort Pitt Tunnel."
While most of the work will be done next year, there will be a bit of finishing work in 2016.
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