Liberty Bridge Construction May Make For Difficult Rush Hour
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Friday night at 8 p.m. the Liberty Tunnels and the inbound side of the Liberty Bridge were closed for the entire weekend.
The reason? To lay the groundwork for a construction project that will last into 2018: replacing the deck on the Liberty Bridge.
Matt Buckly, who drives this route regularly, believes it's right in time.
"All I can say is the bridge needs fixed," said Buckley.
But, if you're traveling into Downtown on Monday morning during rush hour, expect things to look a lot different.
"When we reopen at 5 a.m. on Monday, motorists are going to be able to travel two lanes inbound. The tunnel will be completely open as it always is," PennDOT's Dan Cesna said.
The far left lane will be closed altogether. You will not be able to exit onto the Oakland ramp either if you are coming inbound.
At 2 p.m., the traffic patterns change - two lanes going outbound and one lane coming into town.
When the changeover happens, all traffic will be stopped for as long as 15 minutes.
At night, it's down to one lane in each direction. Cessna warns the first day will require some patience.
"We do expect a learning curve," he said.
More than 50,000 cars pass over the bridge on a regular basis and this will most likely cause delays, and confusion so allow extra time beginning Monday morning.
The $80 million project is expected to be completed in 2018.
"These major deck changes will be during the 2016 construction season...The major restrictions happen this year, work will continue [in to] next year. There will be some weekend closures, some overnights," Cessna said.
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