Southbound Route 28 opens to 2 lanes near Highland Park Bridge
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Route 28 is open to two lanes of traffic in both directions at the Highland Park Bridge interchange after three years of construction.
PennDOT opened Route 28 southbound to two lanes of traffic on Wednesday afternoon. Northbound opened back up last week.
After the $47 million project, two lanes of traffic can flow freely on Route 28 from Kittanning to Pittsburgh. Work began in late 2020 to help mitigate congestion by establishing two lanes in both directions, getting rid of the bottleneck near the Highland Park Bridge.
"It is very exciting to reach this milestone of Route 28 having two lanes of unrestricted free flow traffic after generations of transportation professionals have worked collectively on this effort for decades," District Executive Jason Zang said in a news release announcing the opening of northbound Route 28 last week. "We thank the men and women who worked day and night, in adverse weather conditions, next to speeding traffic to deliver this final major improvement on Route 28."
From 2009 to 2014, five major projects totaling $100 million addressed bottlenecks at the 31st and 40th Street bridges, but those improvements pushed the bottleneck to the Highland Park Bridge interchange.
But work isn't over on Route 28 yet. PennDOT says work will continue through January as crews conduct sign installation, sound wall work and barrier and bridge sealing. There will be off-peak traffic restrictions as the work continues, PennDOT said.
The ramp from Virginia Avenue Extension to southbound Route 28 has also reopened.