U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Pittsburgh Friday to celebrate funding for $142.3 million in projects along the Parkway East and the eastern suburbs and to meet with students at Carnegie Mellon University.
Buttigieg is part of the Biden administration’s promotion of $4.9 billion in grants for major road and bridge projects formally announced Thursday. Biden was scheduled to announce the 37 projects at a news conference along the Wisconsin-Minnesota border, where $1 billion will be used to replace the Blatnik Bridge between Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin.
Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman and U.S. Reps. Summer Lee and Chris Deluzio announced the local projects last month.
In a briefing for reporters Wednesday, Buttigieg said the competitive grants were earmarked for larger projects with regional and national importance. Overall, the agency received more than $300 million applications for $50 billion and awards were given to projects that provided multiple benefits such as improving infrastructure, reducing pollution, creating jobs and benefiting economically challenged areas.
“You can absolutely see the level of demand,” Buttigieg said.
The projects in this area include:
- New sidewalks in Wilkins and Monroeville to provide easier access to transit.
- Eliminating the chronic flooding problem on the Parkway East in Downtown Pittsburgh, the area beside the Monongahela Wharf known as “the bathtub.”
- Installing traffic control measures to reduce speed and regulate the number of vehicles on the Parkway East between Monroeville and the Squirrel Hill Tunnel to reduce congestion and accidents.
- Creating bus lanes along the shoulders of the inbound Parkway East for Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses and adding a connection to the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway at Edgewood.
- Paving parts of the busway stabilizing hillsides to reduce landslides along it.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.