Another work site for Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s University Line project will begin on Sixth Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh this week.
Construction will begin on Sixth Avenue between Smithfield Street and William Penn Place as early as Monday, depending on weather conditions. Crews for Independence Excavating Inc. will be relocating water and sewer lines for future construction of a bus station there, but one lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction and access to the Mellon Square Garage will be maintained.
Bus routes P1, P68 and P71 that normally turn left from Smithfield Street onto Sixth Avenue will go one block farther on Smithfield and turn left on Fifth Avenue to Grant Street.
This work is expected to continue until mid-February.
The company already is working on Sixth at Grant Street, limiting traffic to one lane in each direction there, too. That work should be done by the end of the month.
Previous utility relocation for the new Bus Rapid Transit system on Fifth Avenue at Liberty Avenue has been completed for now.
The work is part of a $291 million project to establish exclusive lanes for buses between Downtown and Oakland, two of the busiest job centers in the state. The project is designed to allow buses to avoid normal traffic congestion with exclusive lanes and priority at traffic signals.
The utility work will move service lines so they won’t be under new stations that will be part of the University Line work. Construction of the stations later in the project could restrict traffic again at the same sites.
The Downtown leg of the project is expected to last until early 2025. The agency is expected to award the contract for work in Uptown and Oakland later this year.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.