Parkway East's new Commercial Street Bridge to reopen around 8 p.m. today, officials say
The Parkway East's brand-new Commercial Street Bridge is slated to reopen Monday, a week ahead of schedule.
Gov. Josh Shapiro is expected to join other leaders at 2 p.m. on Monday to tout the project's progress. You can watch it in the live player above.
The closure, which detoured about 100,000 drivers a day, was scheduled to last through Aug. 3. However, incentivized by a $2 million bonus paid out if the Parkway reopened before 12:01 a.m. on July 28, contractors worked quickly, and now PennDOT says the highway will reopen on Monday.
The hope is to get eastbound open at 8 p.m. and westbound open shortly after that, Shapiro said.
"It will be magic," he said with a laugh. "It will just happen. No, PennDOT engineers and others, and the team here, law enforcement, everybody's got a plan on how to escort that first traffic through, and then it will just flow."
Once the Parkway East reopens, drivers will be going through the Squirrel Hill Tunnels for the first time in more than two weeks.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis shared a message for motorists, joking, "If we can try, hit the gas when you get closer to the tunnel. Don't slow down. That will change the traffic pattern in the region."
The closure began on July 10, though work had begun long before that as crews built the new bridge alongside the old. The bridge was demolished on July 16, and after that, the new bridge was slid into place, moving 96 feet in the span of seven hours.
"This bridge, this slide that took place to get this bridge in place is the largest known structure to slide in place in the United States of America, and it's right here, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania," Shapiro said.
People KDKA talked to on Sunday said they were amazed by how quickly the project went and they're relieved Interstate 376 will be back open soon. The consensus was that while the closure wasn't the traffic nightmare that everyone feared, it wasn't all smooth sailing.
While the closure lasted for days, PennDOT said it was the preferable option to years of lane closures and restrictions.
"When you think about the delays that would have been experienced by the region with the traditional delivery of this project, as the governor said, about four years worth of oragne cones and cattle chutes, and to distill that down to 17 days — I know that that had some effect on the region with respect to traffic and detours — but the reality is, 17 days for me is a far superior trade than four years worth of chutes and orange cones," said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll.
Commercial Street, which is below the bridge, is still expected to reopen around Aug. 3.
