Residents and motorists who use the Parkway East will get to hear details this week about how replacing the Commercial Street Bridge will affect their lives over the next three years.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will hold a virtual meeting from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday where the designers and contractors will discuss how the project will be completed. After a presentation that discusses traffic restrictions and work schedules, the team will engage in a question-and-answer session about the bridge, which carries about 125,000 vehicles a day.
What makes the project so complex is that contractors will build the new bridge from the ground up in Frick Park just south of the existing one. When the structure is finished in July 2026, the highway will be closed for 25 days while crews demolish the old bridge and slide the new one into place.
Primary contractor Joseph B. Fay Co. began last month to prepare for work on the bridge itself by closing the inbound Wilkinsburg offramp on the Parkway East so the roadway can be lowered. That is needed because the ramp will be the primary detour route for trucks during times when the highway is completely closed, and right now it can’t accommodate taller trucks.
Other work this year is expected to include building an access road on the hillside on the right side of the bridge to Commercial Street underneath it and clearing brush to temporarily relocate Commercial Street and the trail beside it. That will create the pad for construction of the new bridge.
Most likely, the first minor disruption for highway traffic will be this winter, when crews install a retaining wall on the hillside under the Summerset at Frick Park housing development, which is to the left when approaching the tunnel.
Other work during the project will include installing a new concrete median barrier, relocating the sanitary sewer line and upgrading guide rails, the detection system for trucks that are too tall to go through the tunnel and closed-circuit cameras. Commercial Street and the trail also will be put back in place and Frick Park will be restored before work concludes in 2027.
Throughout the project, there could be overnight and weekend lane restrictions, especially when bridge components are delivered and unloaded overnight next year to an area just outside the outbound tunnel. The material could either be loaded onto smaller trucks and taken to the park on the new access road or lowered by crane from the highway.
In addition to officials from PennDOT and Fay, Wednesday’s meeting will include representatives from designer HDR Inc. and S&B USA Construction. The link for the meeting and additional information is available at the project website.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.