Pa. Turnpike Work Expected To Cause Delays On Wednesday

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INDIANOLA, Pa. (KDKA) – The road construction season is about to spring into full bloom.

You can expect some delays on Wednesday on the westbound side of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

In preparation for paving work, something a bit unusual is going to happen between Allegheny Valley and the Butler Valley interchanges.

We are used to setting our cruise control and rolling on the Turnpike, so this is going to be a nasty surprise for westbound traffic around 10 a.m. The turnpike's Sue Jones says that's when state police and maintenance crews will, "enter at Allegheny Valley westbound and they'll stop traffic from the on ramp and traffic on the mainline."

A line-painting crew will then enter the construction zone and begin to work toward Butler Valley.

"State Police and maintenance crews will start out at about 20 miles per hour keeping traffic behind them," Jones said.

A rolling road block designed to give the line painting crew a chance to work safely and true as they wind toward the far end of the construction zone.

It a four-mile stretch of work that is preparing for paving to come. Once they reach Butler Valley, the crews will exit and head back the other direction allowing the cue of traffic to clear. They will then regroup at Allegheny Valley and do it all again for a total of three times.

Jones estimates they'll start each pace, "maybe every hour-and-a-half."

The line painting and pacing will continue until the three runs are finished. The window for the work is between 10 and 3 but that's as specific as the crews can be.

The good news for drivers who use that portion of the turnpike daily the work there is on the downhill run.

"We don't have a date yet but the fall should be the completion period," Jones said.