Three areas of construction for Pittsburgh Regional Transit’s University Line between Oakland and Downtown Pittsburgh will cause traffic disruptions for motorists beginning Friday.
For the next two weekends, crews will work in Downtown Pittsburgh to restore the roadways around the Wood Street light rail station, where a new station is being added for bus riders. Beginning at 6 p.m. each Friday and lasting until 6 a.m. on Monday, crews will restore Sixth Avenue between Liberty Avenue and Wood Street and Liberty Avenue between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Street.
During the work, Sixth Avenue will be closed between Wood Street and Liberty Avenue, and Liberty will be reduced to two lanes between Seventh Street and Sixth Avenue both weekends.
For months, workers have been relocating utilities and doing other work to prepare the site for the installation of the new bus station. That work has been completed, and the station itself will be installed later.
The station is one of five the agency will build Downtown as part of the $291 million project to provide exclusive bus lanes between Downtown and Oakland, inbound on Fifth Avenue and outbound on Forbes Avenue. The goal is to improve service reliability by allowing buses to avoid delays in rush-hour traffic.
The Downtown portion is nearing completion and should open in June, but work is just starting in Uptown and Oakland.
Road restoration work also will take place in Oakland from 8 p.m. Friday to midnight Saturday on Forbes Avenue at McKee Place. This is an area where water lines and drainage were relocated earlier this month.
Part of Forbes will remain open during the work, but McKee will be closed except for emergency vehicles.
A portion of Forbes Avenue will remain open to vehicular traffic. McKee Place will be closed except for emergency vehicles. Pedestrians will have access, and some street parking will be available.
The bus stop on Forbes Avenue at McKee Place will be out of service so riders should use stops on Forbes at Halket Street or Meyran Avenue.
On March 29, crews will return to that area to prepare sites for two new bus stations on Forbes. They will install construction fencing between McKee Place and Semple Street so they can install new sidewalks, curbs and accessible ramps until June.
Between Craft and Halket, they will install sewer infrastructure and electrical conduit, new sidewalks, curbs and accessible ramps through June.
Work at both sites will be done from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
The new stations and other amenities will be installed at the sites later this year.
The full University Line should be finished in 2027.
Ed covers transportation at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at eblazina@unionprogress.com.