Finally: Bus Rapid Transit construction between Oakland and Downtown to begin Sept. 13

Construction will begin Sept. 13 in Downtown Pittsburgh on the long-awaited Bus Rapid Transit system between the Golden Triangle and Oakland.

Pittsburgh Regional Transit said Thursday that contractor Independence Excavating Inc. will begin work on about 30 days of construction with sewer and water line relocation on Fifth Avenue near Triangle Park, across Market Street from the Fairmont Pittsburgh hotel. Crews will work from 7 a.m to 5 p.m. weekdays to move the utilities so they aren’t under the new sidewalk when one of five new bus stations Downtown will be installed there.

As a result, two lanes of traffic will be closed in the small block of Fifth between Market Street and Liberty Avenue, and the remaining lane will carry traffic heading toward Fifth Avenue Place. Traffic that ordinarily would turn from Liberty onto Fifth will be detoured either to Sixth Avenue or Fourth Avenue.

PRT buses that usually turn from Liberty to Fifth also will be detoured, but spokesman Adam Brandolph said those details haven’t been finalized.

After the work on Fifth Avenue, the contractor will move to Sixth Avenue for the same type of work.

“We’ve been in close contact with the business operators and stakeholders in the Downtown area to keep them abreast of the schedule and where work will be happening,” Brandolph said.

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The start of construction will mark the end of more than 10 years of planning for the $291 million system, which the agency has dubbed the University Line. The project will create exclusive bus lanes between Oakland and Downtown, inbound on Fifth Avenue and outbound on Forbes Avenue, with a goal of eliminating traffic delays by keeping buses moving on a predictable schedule rather than bunching together during rush-hour traffic.

The utility work is the first of what is expected to be a series of disruptions during the Downtown portion of construction. In addition to Fifth Avenue and Market Street, new stations will be constructed in the business district at Fifth and Ross Street, Fifth and William Penn Place, the Wood Street T Station on Liberty Avenue, and Steel Plaza at Sixth Avenue and Grant Street.

PRT awarded Independence a $27.9 million contract in March for the first phase of the project, but the company didn’t get the notice to proceed until June because the Federal Transit Administration hadn’t released $150 million in federal grants for the project. The Downtown loop is expected to take about 18 months to complete.

The agency expects to award a contract for the second phase, from Uptown to Oakland, by the end of the year. That work also will include construction of protected bike lanes and smart traffic signals that will allow buses to move ahead before other traffic.

Besides allowing the agency to meet scheduled service, the new system is expected to reduce air pollution by using 15 electric buses. Downtown buses will start using the loop there as soon as it is done, and the full system should be finished by late 2025.