Cars cruise onto new Parkway East bridge after construction project completed
The first cars have rolled onto the new Parkway East bridge hours after officials announced the bridge project was completed.
VIDEO: Drive cam rides on new Parkway East bridge Monday night
PennDOT officials confirmed to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 at 7:30 p.m. that both directions of the Parkway East near the Squirrel Hill Tunnel are open to traffic.
PennDOT’s website, 511PA, also captured cars cruising through the tunnel 17 days after the Parkway East Commercial Street Bridge closed.
“I think 8 o’clock will be eastbound, and then we’ll do westbound shortly thereafter,” Gov. Shapiro said early Monday afternoon during a news conference before the reopening. “The PennDOT engineers and the team here of law enforcement, everybody’s got a plan on how to escort that first traffic through, and then it will just flow.”
Parkway East reopening announced: Watch the full video below
In addition to the Commercial Street Bridge work being complete, officials said the lane restriction on the eastbound side of the Parkway East will be lifted as well.
They also said the work in the Squirrel Hill tunnel will be complete within the same time frame.
Now, as for Commercial Street itself, which sits below the bridge, it will be closed for one more week.
The closure of the Parkway East was originally scheduled to continue through Aug. 3, but workers have been going 24 hours a day, and the weather has largely cooperated.
Timelapse of the bridge being slid into place below:
Officials expected the bridge to be finished ahead of schedule. On Wednesday, PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said the Parkway East was anticipated to reopen during the middle of the week, but Carroll said officials were striving for sooner.
Watch the bridge being demolished below:
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