PennDOT working to clear traffic obstacles from Parkway East detour routes for upcoming 25-day closure

PennDOT crews are working to remove traffic obstacles from detour routes for the upcoming 25-day closure of the Parkway East.

The 25-day closure of the Parkway East is just four days away and much of PennDOT's efforts right now are centered on removing construction material and in other cases, on coordinating traffic signals.

The magic word is flow while the Commercial Street Bridge is being replaced. 

PennDOT wants traffic to flow on the detours. In some cases, there are challenges that can be adjusted, but in others, not so much. 

Exiting the Parkway East at Wilkinsburg on the inbound interstate detour, PennDOT is changing Ardmore Boulevard this week to give traffic coming from Forest Hills its own lane.

"Then the right lane, we're actually going to be giving that to the Parkway traffic," said PennDOT Senior Assistant Construction Manager John Myler.

That will be the case until the inbound detour has to merge into a single lane through Wilkinsburg, which is also the case for the outbound interstate detour.

"That's sort of the pinch point of the interstate detour, where you only have one lane in each direction," Myler said.

All along the interstate detour, there are a lot of traffic signals from Wilkinsburg, through Point Breeze, and along Oakland, both inbound and outbound. 

"We have upgraded those signals to time them all properly to work together and we have remote features where we're able to modify those times," Myler said.

Myler said those signals that PennDOT can't remotely control, they can adjust their timing as they see issues.

While they can't do anything about the ongoing hospital construction in Oakland taking out the inbound right lane of Fifth Avenue, PennDOT says they are working with Pittsburgh Regional Transit to reopen Fifth Avenue to three lanes. 

Myler said that Pittsburgh Water is going to be clearing out of the area near the Homestead Grays Bridge where they have been working, as that is part of the detour route.

Parking lanes on the detour routes will be remaining open.

"We're not taking any additional parking away from from any residents," Myler said.

Stop signs on Braddock Avenue traveling through Rankin will also be remaining in place.

"Those stop signs will remain in place at those intersections, and again we encourage folks to be cautious through that area," Myler said. "There are pedestrians in that neighborhood section."

The bottom line is that PennDOT is trying to remove as many obstacles as possible, but they know it's still going to be challenging.

When it comes to Route 28, which is being used as a detour route from the Pennsylvania Turnpike into the city of Pittsburgh, Myler said there is not much they can do to the road, but they are going to have additional assets ready to quickly remove any vehicles that break down or are involved in crashes.