After months of preparation, PennDOT has closed a section of the Parkway East to complete its $95 million Commercial Street Bridge replacement project, modernizing a crucial link in one of Pittsburgh\u2019s busiest transit corridors. Here\u2019s what to know as the project gets underway:<\/p>\n
Projected project dates<\/p>\n
PennDOT began closing the Parkway East between the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and Exit 77 (Edgewood\/Swissvale) at 9 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
The closure will remain in effect as workers demolish the parkway\u2019s existing Commercial Street Bridge and slide its replacement into position. PennDOT expects to open the new bridge to traffic at 5 a.m. Aug. 3.<\/p>\n
Detour routes are available<\/p>\n
PennDOT has published several detour routes on its project <\/a>website<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u2022 Interstate traffic traveling in either direction can take Penn Avenue and Fifth Avenue through Wilkinsburg, Point Breeze, Shadyside and Oakland.<\/p>\n \u2022 Local drivers can take South Braddock Avenue in Swissvale, the Rankin Bridge, Eighth Avenue in Homestead, and the Homestead Grays Bridge.<\/p>\n \u2022 Three longer alternate routes are available via I-76 and PA 28 along the Allegheny River, I-76 and I-79 through the North Hills, and Route 48 and Route 148 through the South Hills.<\/p>\n The agency expects the detour routes to be functional Saturday morning, according to PennDOT spokeswoman Yasmeen Manyisha.<\/p>\n Massive undertaking<\/p>\n The new Commercial Street Bridge is 846 feet long, 85 feet tall, and weighs more than 22 million pounds. Sliding the new bridge into place will be one of PennDOT\u2019s largest-ever construction projects, officials said.<\/p>\n Workers will gently slide the bridge into place using a greased rail system and a series of hydraulic jacks. PennDOT tested out the system late last month, lifting the bridge 10 inches and moving it laterally one foot. The bridge will slide about 100 feet during the actual operation.<\/p>\n Watch the project live<\/p>\n PennDOT is hosting a livestream of the bridge\u2019s demolition and replacement on its project page<\/a> and a new dedicated page on <\/a>PA511<\/a>, the state\u2019s traffic tracking website.<\/p>\n The stream will go live Friday and run until 5 a.m. Aug. 3.<\/p>\n PennDOT expects to blow up the old bridge with hundreds of dynamite charges sometime next week, after crews from S&B Fay demolish the bridge deck. <\/p>\n Work from home if you can<\/p>\n PennDOT is encouraging commuters to work from home during the closure to reduce traffic volume on the detour routes. The Parkway East is one of Pittsburgh\u2019s most heavily traveled roads, and approximately 100,000 vehicles travel through the corridor each day, Manyisha said.<\/p>\n PennDOT reached out to many of Pittsburgh\u2019s top employers beginning in February to share their message, with \u201cvarying levels of reception,\u201d Manyisha said. The agency does not typically advocate for remote work to alleviate traffic during construction projects but saw it as a viable option since many companies reduced in-person work in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the nature of the project, we are asking those that are able to telework to do so to aid in reducing traffic volumes for those who cannot,\u201d Manyisha said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of preparation, PennDOT has closed a section of the Parkway East to complete its $95 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-241447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241447","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=241447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}