PITTSBURGH —
PennDOT will close Commercial Street for 24 hours starting Friday night to realign the road underneath the bridge as part of the next phase of the Commercial Street Bridge project.
“Crews will be out there starting at 8 tonight. We’re going to close Commercial Street underneath the parkway, and that’ll allow crews to remove barriers that separated that and do grading work to get the road prepped for paving operations, which will take place tomorrow,” said John Myler, senior assistant construction manager for PennDOT.
This is happening as neighbors have enjoyed the reopening of Commercial Street since August.
“With Commercial open, it’s just wonderful. When both Commercial and the parkway were closed, it took me an hour to get to or from Squirrel Hill. Right now, with Commercial open, it takes five minutes,” said Tracie Stufft, who lives along Commercial Street.
Myler emphasized that this closure does not mark the end of the work for PennDOT.
“But we’ve still got extensive work underneath the bridge to restore the park back to its original features with trees and landscaping, things like that. Also, the trail itself, Nine Mile Trail, is still going to be in its temporary location, but next spring, we’ll wrap all that work up and be able to put the trail back to its original location as well,” Myler said.
Despite the ongoing construction, Stufft expressed optimism about the future.
“So, you know, it’ll be nice, I think, for everybody. But I think we’re ready for some no construction vehicles constantly coming up and down and all the road closures or changes,” Stufft said.
PennDOT also announced that a single lane in the eastbound direction of the Parkway East will be closed starting Friday night until Saturday at noon for paving work along the shoulder.