Traffic alert: Another weekend of transportation projects

Construction crews will take advantage of favorable weather conditions over the weekend to move ahead on several major transportation projects. Here are the highlights:

• Smithfield Street Bridge — The historic bridge will be closed to most traffic from 10 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday. Crews for Advantage Steel and Construction LLC will perform concrete roadway, median and sidewalk repairs, bridge deck and overlay work and line painting during the closure. Emergency and public transit vehicles will be allowed to cross the bridge. The recommended detour would have drivers turn left from East Carson Street onto South Tenth Street and cross the Philip Murray Bridge, turn left on Second Avenue, left on B Street, right on First Avenue, left on Grant Street and right on Fort Pitt Boulevard. Traffic on the Downtown Pittsburgh side of the bridge should follow the detour in reverse from Second Avenue. The work is part of an $8.5 million upgrade of the structure that should be finished this summer.
• Boulevard of the Allies — There will be a variety of closures this weekend related to the ongoing project to upgrade a series of ramps on the boulevard. From 8 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday, the inbound lanes of the boulevard will be closed between McDevitt Place and Jumonville Street. The ramp from Fifth Avenue to the inbound boulevard and inbound Parkway East will be closed at the same time. Also, the outbound Parkway East ramp to Oakland will be closed from 9 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Detours will be posted for all the closures. The work is part of a $35.4 million project to improve the ramp system.
• Pittsburgh Regional Transit — The 10-week closure of the agency’s Red Line on the light rail system begins Sunday between Overbrook and South Hills Junction. During the closure, crews will replace more than 10,000 feet of track used by light rail vehicles and reconstruct four grade crossings in Castle Shannon, Mt. Lebanon, Dormont and Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood. During the closure, Red Line trips will be renamed the Blue Line and rail shuttles called the Red Line-Short Rail will operate between Dormont Junction and Overbrook, where passengers will transfer to the Blue Line at Willow. Additionally, the agency is creating two temporary bus routes, the 37-Castle Shannon that will run every 30 minutes from Castle Shannon to Station Square using Castle Shannon Boulevard and West Liberty Avenue, and the 42-Potomac, which operates every 20 minutes during morning and evening rush hours and every 30 minutes other times from Potomac Station to Station Square via Broadway and West Liberty avenues. The agency couldn’t fill all the trips with scheduled drivers so some may be missed unless operators agree to work overtime. The rail work is part of a five-year, $150 million series of light rail upgrades.