{"id":227674,"date":"2026-06-25T08:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/227674\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T08:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:59:09","slug":"penndot-will-be-performing-a-major-test-today-for-the-upcoming-commercial-street-bridge-replacement-project-heres-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/227674\/","title":{"rendered":"PennDOT will be performing a major test today for the upcoming Commercial Street bridge replacement project. Here’s what to know."},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s a big day for PennDOT as crews are preparing to perform a major test when it comes to the upcoming replacement of the Commercial Street bridge<\/a> on the Parkway East<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You can’t blame the folks at PennDOT if they have some butterflies to start the day as they prepare to move a bridge that weighs 22 million pounds.<\/a><\/p>\n

For safety, crews will be closing Commercial Street and the Nine Mile Run trail<\/a>, which run underneath I-376 as tests are being performed to make sure things are going to work next month for the big move<\/a> while the Parkway East is closed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PennDOT Senior Assistant Construction Manager John Myler said that crews will be testing all of the required equipment for the moving of the bridge next month.<\/p>\n

“The overall weight of the completed bridge is 22 million pounds,” Myler said. “The bridge is just over around 850 feet in length.”<\/p>\n

The company that has installed its red moving jacks at the base of the bridge specializes in moving very big things and while PennDOT has moved completed bridges before, Myler says this is the first time a structure of this size and scale that have been moved within the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"screenshot-2026-06-25-015222.png<\/p>\n

PennDOT will be performing a critical test on Thursday as crews prepare for the upcoming replacement of the Commercial Street Bridge along the Parkway East outside of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel.<\/p>\n

KDKA Photojournalist Brian Smithmyer<\/p>\n

Myler said that crews will first lift up the bridge with a total of 42 jacks, get it off of its temporary bearing, and once it’s secured, move it roughly five feet towards the existing bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Once that’s completed, we’ll bring it back to five feet, make sure everything’s in alignment, and set the bridge back down on the temporary foundations,” Myler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Myler said that crews will be monitoring the bridge closely while it’s being moved to make sure it doesn’t get out of alignment or damaged during the process.<\/p>\n

While crews could move the bridge multiple feet per minute, they won’t be going that fast, likely moving it around a foot every ten minutes.<\/p>\n

While Commercial Street is closed today and the testing is taking place, traffic on the Parkway East<\/a> will not be impacted.<\/p>\n

If all goes according to plan today, Commercial Street is expected to reopen around 4 p.m. before it closes again on Monday<\/a>. It will remain closed through early August when the new bridge is installed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a big day for PennDOT as crews are preparing to perform a major test when it comes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[16977,1730,3431,73,75,74,5749,1704],"class_list":["post-227674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-i-376","tag-parkway-east","tag-penndot","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-squirrel-hill-tunnel","tag-traffic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}