White-knuckle cure: PennDOT releases design for a safer Squirrel Hill interchange on the Parkway East

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has settled on a $100 million plan for eliminating the white-knuckle experience many drivers have at the Squirrel Hill interchange on the Parkway East.

The design, chosen from more than six that had been under consideration, will eliminate the dangerous crisscross of traffic getting on and off the interstate highway just before the Squirrel Hill Tunnel by relocating ramps farther away. To improve safety in an area with high crash rates, ramps also will be extended for easier merge points, sharp turns will be eliminated, and a roundabout will be installed on access streets at Monitor Street and Beechwood Boulevard.

The department also has received conditional approval from the Federal Highway Administration to add a bike/pedestrian trail parallel to the inbound highway from Forward Avenue in Squirrel Hill to Saline Street in lower Greenfield.

Plans call for four years of construction to begin in 2029. Details haven’t been finalized, but the work is expected to be staged to allow as many lanes of traffic as possible to remain open during construction.

About 100,000 motorists use the highway every day.

Although the final alignment of the project has been chosen, PennDOT District Executive Jason Zang stressed that the agency still wants to hear from the public as the department moves into final design.

“Public involvement has been instrumental, and as we move into the design phase, we still request feedback through our website and will hold another public meeting as plans progress so we can continue to refine the design process,” Zang said in a news release.

The agency had reduced the project to three design options with design and construction costs ranging from $112 million to $192 million when it held a public meeting in Greenfield in February. The chosen design, in the middle at $138 million for design and construction, takes away the least amount of parking on Beechwood Boulevard (750 feet) and will require taking six properties.

One of the other options would have taken 3,100 feet of parking, and property needed ranged from one to 14.

The new interchange will place the entrance or exit for three ramps on Beechwood Boulevard, all designed to eliminate the congestion and weaving near the tunnel:

• The new outbound exit ramp will begin just before the overhead Greenfield Bridge and take traffic on a long ramp that passes under the new outbound entrance ramp and exits at a new traffic light near where the current inbound ramp from Beechwood is now.
• The new outbound entrance ramp will join the highway just after the Greenfield Bridge, separating it from the exit ramp, with the entrance from Beechwood just before the bridge.
• The inbound exit ramp will be extended to eliminate the sharp curve on the current ramp, cross above the highway and join Beechwood at a new traffic light between the other two ramps.

Additionally, traffic from Beechwood will no longer have an inbound ramp to the highway. Drivers will have to turn from Beechwood toward Squirrel Hill on Murray Avenue and turn left onto the inbound ramp at an expanded intersection.

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Barb Warwick, whose district includes the improvement area, said she’s satisfied with the plan. Two benefits are the small reduction in parking along Beechwood and a new one-way street for residents from Greenfield toward Squirrel Hill that will be “a big improvement” because it will separate local traffic from “what feels like a highway.”

“It’s going to be a big project that’s going to cause a lot of disruption,” she said, but the result should be improved safety.

In addition to improving safety by moving ramps away from the tunnel, the new traffic pattern, in conjunction with the roundabout at Beechwood and Monitor Street, is expected to cut congestion and reduce travel time for drivers. The public can submit comments on the project through this PennDOT feedback form.