Despite concerns Wednesday from some residents, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials are confident that the major redesign of Interstate 79’s interchange with Route 910 in Pittsburgh’s North Hills will reduce traffic congestion.
The agency and its consultants met with residents in two sessions at the Upper Cardinal DiNardo Center Social Hall at Saints John & Paul Catholic Church in Franklin Park to talk about the disruptions that will come with the two-year, $46.5 million project. Work began last month to move the highway’s northbound entrance and exit ramps at Route 910 about 1,000 feet to the west.
Steve Sneddon, PennDOT’s senior assistant construction engineer for Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties, and project manager Zachary Kamnikar reviewed the goals of the project to reduce congestion that causes backups from the northbound exit onto the interstate and on Route 910 at Brandt School Road and VIP Drive: Building a new flyover to move the northbound ramps adjacent to the southbound ramps at a single intersection.
During and after the first session, residents expressed concerns that having one turning lane for northbound traffic to I-79 and not making improvements on other feeder roads to Route 910 would result in the same type of congestion.
Sneddon disagreed, saying he is “confident” in the agency’s studies that traffic will be substantially improved by the current project.
“All of our studies have shown this will work,” he said. “We all know there are other issues to deal with, but this project isn’t dealing with them. There will be other projects.”
Kamnikar said continued residential growth in the North Hills means PennDOT regularly is looking at what types of road improvements are needed in the area.
The new interchange at Route 910 will be the first time PennDOT has used the design known as a single-point urban interchange in this district. It will bring nearly 20 lanes of through traffic and turning lanes together at one intersection, but the sequencing of traffic lights should move motorists through the area without substantial delays, Kamnikar said in an interview.
“The signals are going to adjust to the level of traffic,” Kamnikar said, which means no traffic should sit at a red light while there is no traffic passing through the intersection in other directions. “They will be adaptive.”
Now that contractor Golden Triangle Construction moved equipment into place the past few weeks, officials expect most work the rest of this year will be done during off-peak hours behind barricades with few traffic disruptions. That will change next spring when crews build a temporary northbound onramp adjacent to the existing ramp so they can build the support system for the permanent flyover ramp adjacent to the southbound ramp.
More details on traffic disruptions will be released closer to the time they will occur.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.