A weekend for shifting traffic on major road projects

This weekend, there will be a big shift in roadwork projects – three of them, in fact.

The Parkway East, Interstate 279 and Curry Hollow Road all will have new traffic patterns after this weekend. Here are the details on those projects and other weekend work changes:

• Parkway East — For weeks, outbound traffic has been using the inbound lanes where the highway passes over Old William Penn Highway for replacement of a bridge. This weekend, that will shift, and inbound traffic will begin using the outbound side of the highway. Work on the shift begins at 9 p.m. Friday, when traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction between the Penn Hills and Monroeville interchanges. Crews will install barriers and paint new lines on the road to create two 11-foot lanes in each direction on the inbound side of the highway. This crossover is expected to last until early December. The work is part of a $70.1 million project to improve the highway between the Churchill and Monroeville interchanges.
• Interstate 279 — More traffic changes are coming for the emergency project to repair the supports for the HOV lane and Interstate 579. Right now, southbound traffic on I-279 has been shifted to the HOV lane to the Veterans Bridge on I-579. Beginning at 9 p.m. Friday, crews will undo that crossover by 1 p.m. Sunday, when traffic will be able to use the normal right lane off-ramp to the Veterans Bridge, the left exit to I-579 using the HOV lane will be closed, and the ramp from southbound Route 28 to southbound I-579 will reopen. But that return to normal is expected to last less than a week while crews work in the HOV lane to prepare for northbound traffic to shift onto the HOV lanes beginning next weekend. Crews found more deterioration than expected on the bridge piers during inspection earlier this year, leading the state Department of Transportation to order repairs to 35 piers that support the HOV lanes and I-579. That work is expected to last until late December.
• Curry Hollow Road — Another long-term crossover of westbound traffic into eastbound lanes has started between Old Curry Hollow Road and Brownsville Road in West Mifflin and Pleasant Hills for full-depth road replacement. One lane of traffic will be maintained in each direction, left turns to Kennan Drive from Curry Hollow will be prohibited, and westbound traffic on Curry Hollow to residential areas between Keeport Drive and Brownsville Road will be limited to local traffic only. This configuration will last until mid-November. Traffic previously had been crossed over between Arbor Lane and Route 51 beginning June 6.
• Parkway East 2 — Utility work on Bates Street in Oakland will close the Parkway East inbound off-ramps at Oakland and Glenwood from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. Bates also will be reduced to one lane of alternating traffic between the Boulevard of the Allies and Second Avenue. Detours will be posted.
• Pittsburgh McKeesport Boulevard — The road in Dravosburg will be reduced to one lane beginning Friday and lasting until Oct. 31. The left northbound lane will be closed between Bettis Road and Fifth Street. Crews for Pennsylvania American Water will be relocating water lines as part of construction for a section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway under construction from Route 51 in Jefferson Hills to Route 885 in Duquesne.