PennDOT hoping to use weekend closure of Parkway East as a learning lesson
The full closure of the Parkway East outside of the Squirrel Hill Tunnel proved to be eye opening for drivers and for PennDOT, who say they hope to use it as a learning lesson.
Lessons were learned ahead of next year's 25-day closure of the Parkway East when the new Commercial Street Bridge will be installed.
Some things went well. Other things were problematic.
The full closure of the Parkway from the Squirrel Hill exit to the Edgewood/Swissvale exit sent traffic onto the planned detour through Wilkinsburg and Oakland.
"It flowed pretty well," said PennDOT Senior Assistant Construction Engineer John Myler.
Not everyone used the planned detour, however.
"A lot of traffic was not exiting at our detour as much as going to the closest point that they could, which were the Squirrel Hill and Edgewood/Swissvale exits, instead of exiting at Wilkinsburg or Forbes Avenue," Myler said.
So the heart of Squirrel Hill took a traffic snarling hit.
"We did get some feedback from sone local community members about extra traffic in the Squirrel Hill area and people being kind of lost and maybe speeding and things like that," Myler said. "So we're going to work with the city and try and correct some of those things as well for the long term closure that will take place next year."
The main detour route revealed some traffic light issues that PennDOT says they expected and have already been addressing with the city.
"We'll be implementing those changes over the winter here in preparation for next year to really help them improve that traffic flow when we have high volumes on it next year," Myler said.
Those changes will be critical as the 25-day closure will deal with weekday rush hour traffic, a dramatic contrast to this past weekend's closure.
As far as some of the other detour routes, PennDOT says there was increased traffic on Rt. 837, Allegheny River Boulevard, and Rt 28, and all those routes handled the extra traffic well.