The next section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway is only eight-tenths of a mile long, but it will be a complicated project that includes moving 1.5 million cubic yards of dirt, realigning a local road, and building a 160-foot-tall, 1,300-foot-long bridge.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission on Tuesday authorized the agency to seek bids on the section of the new toll road from Camp Hollow Road in West Mifflin to Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard in Dravosburg, near the Mansfield Bridge. Design Manager Eric Buchan said bids will be advertised in December and work could begin as early as February at an estimated cost of $177.5 million.
Buchan said moving dirt around the site to level off the path of the new roadway is pretty standard construction that takes down hills in some places and fills in valleys in others.
The bridge is more challenging because it is so high and will involve drilling supports several hundred feet into the ground. It will carry the highway over Curry Hollow.
When this section is done, Camp Hollow will have a full interchange and Dravosburg will have a half interchange. Traffic coming from Jefferson Hills will be able to get off at Dravosburg, and traffic will get on in Dravosbsurg going south toward Jefferson Hills but not north toward Duquesne. Traffic traveling south from Duquesne will not be able to get off at Dravosburg.
Buchan said a design change from the original plans will benefit residents at each end of the section. Instead of adding new local roads parallel to the toll road, the agency will build the main line without a toll gantry so that local residents can use that section for free.
A key part of the project will involve realigning four-tenths of a mile of Pittsburgh-McKeesport Boulevard in Dravosburg. Buchan said that is needed to smooth out a dangerous curve in the road.
Additionally, the agency will replace a temporary traffic light at Fifth Street and Richland Avenue with a permanent one. The turnpike installed the temporary signal in May 2024 after a Serra Catholic student was killed in a crash there eight months earlier.
That part of the project is expected to take 18 to 20 months. Crews will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction throughout the work.
The entire section is expected to be finished in 2029.
The turnpike will hold an open house for residents to get information before construction begins on how it will affect their communities.
The first two sections, still under construction, carry the highway from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills to Camp Hollow. After Dravosburg, there are four more sections to be built to Route 837 in Duquesne if the turnpike and state Legislature can find additional money to complete it.
The sections will open to traffic as soon as they are finished and won’t have to wait for the entire project to be done.
RELATED STORY: Mon-Fayette Expressway project could stall at Dravosburg without more money.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.