As one West Mifflin road reopens, another closes Monday as construction continues on the Mon-Fayette Expressway.
New England Road reopened June 28 between Camp Hollow Road and Route 837 after being closed since late March so crews could install drainage for a new bridge being built as part of the new toll road project. Because of a wet spring, that work took about a month longer than expected.
Beginning Monday, Camp Hollow Road will be closed between New England and Camden Hill Road. As a result, vehicles traveling on Camp Hollow will not be allowed past the entrance to the U.S. Steel Corp. Irvin Works at Camden Hill Road.
The closure will allow crews for Trumbull Corp. to install drainage pipes under the roadway and complete slope work in the area. That work should be completed by mid-October.
Trumbull has a $165.6 million contract to build a 2-mile section of the highway from Coal Valley Road in Jefferson Hills to just north of Camp Hollow Road near Curry Hollow Road in West Mifflin. Crews will move 4 million cubic yards of dirt, build five bridges and construct a full intersection and two roundabouts at Camp Hollow Road.
This is the second leg of the southern section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway, which will run from Route 51 at Jefferson Hills to Route 837 in Duquesne by 2028 at a cost of $1.3 billion. The turnpike plans to open sections of the new highway as they are completed.
The highway, viewed as a lifeline to the Monongahela Valley after the decline of the steel industry, has been under consideration since the 1960s. Construction finally began last year.
The ultimate goal is to extend the highway across the Monongahela River to the Parkway East in Monroeville, but the turnpike hasn’t started design of the northern section yet.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.