Questionable weather could cause some changes, but a lot of road work is scheduled to start or move into a new phase in the Pittsburgh area this week. Here are the highlights:
- Route 28 – Work will begin Monday on the $4.8 million warning system for wrong-way drivers on the busy highway. Power Contracting Co. will begin work to install flashing lights and signs to warn drivers if they enter the highway going the wrong direction between Downtown Pittsburgh and Harmar. This week, there will be shoulder restrictions from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Millvale interchange as crews begin installing electrical components for the system on the offramps. Eventually, work will extend from Pittsburgh’s North Side to Millvale, Sharpsburg, Etna, Shaler, O’Hara, Aspinwall and Harmar. The overall project will include installing conduit, fiber, sensors, detectors, signs, lights and cameras throughout the corridor. When the project is finished next spring, the system will alert drivers and send a notification to the state Department of Transportation’s Western Regional Traffic Management Center, which will contact police to report the incident.
- Parkway East – The outbound highway will be closed overnights from Monday through Saturday in the Oakland area through the end of May while crews work on the Birmingham Bridge. The closures will be from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday. This week, the closure will be extended from 9 p.m. Friday to noon Saturday. During the closures, crews will conduct bridge jacking, bearing replacement, and pin and hanger replacement on the Oakland off-ramp over the highway. Detours will be posted. Closures will not occur on days when the Pittsburgh Pirates have home games at night.
- Fifth Avenue – Pittsburgh Regional Transit will start work on two new stations for the University Line in the Uptown neighborhood on Monday. One station will be at Fifth Avenue and Washington Place and the other at Fifth and Pride Street. The initial work will involve excavation and installation of new sidewalk curbs and ramps and conduit for the new stations, plus foundations for new traffic signals. Traffic will be shifted to the left side of the street, opposite PPG Paints Arena, and parking will be eliminated because the right lane will be for buses only. That work should continue through the fall. Construction will finish in June on the Downtown Pittsburgh section of the $291 University Line, but work is just beginning in Uptown and Oakland. The project to create exclusive bus lanes inbound on Fifth Avenue and outbound on Forbes is expected to be finished in 2027.
- Interstate 79 1 – There will be periodic single-lane restrictions in both directions of the highway from 7 p.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday between the Route 60 Crafton/Moon Run interchange and the Neville Island Bridge. Crews will be conducting field measurements.
- Interstate79 2 – Surveying work will cause periodic single-lane restrictions from the I-79-I-279 split in Franklin Park to the Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange in Cranberry from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday.
- Rochester Road – Waterline relocation work starting Monday will cause single-lane alternating traffic between Nocklyn Drive and Reis Run Road in Ross through late May. Frank J. Zottola Construction Inc., a contractor for West View Water, will work from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.