Today is the first day that there won't be restrictions in the Squirrel Hill Tunnel, but it makes you wonder what's next for PennDOT's Commercial Street Bridge project.

KDKA's John Shumway wanted to know too, so he went looking for answers.

The answer is plenty as the building of the new Commercial Street Bridge is a huge, ambitious project that will crescendo with a full closure of the Parkway East next summer for 25 days.

Building a retaining wall along the right shoulder of the outbound lanes of the Parkway East outside the Squirrel Hill Tunnel is why there have been rush hour lane closures inside the tunnel for more than a month, but that restriction is gone now.

Rush hour pain for drivers may be gone, but PennDOT construction engineer John Myler says the work is far from finished.

"So now we'll continue single lanes at night to wrap up the remaining work of the retaining wall construction and shoulder widening," Myler said.

Meanwhile, down below, the permanent foundations for the new bridge are already there.

"We have three of the four permanent structures completed at this point," Myler said.

Those structures include where the bridge will be built and where it will slide into place next summer.

The steel for the super structure arrives early next month and you'll start seeing it rise as you pass eastbound before October. 

"People may think we're going to move the Parkway over to where this bridge is being built, and that is not the case," Myler said. "We'll be moving that bridge over in line with the existing Parkway."

The moving of the new bridge will take place during a 25-day full closure of the Parkway East next July.

"Any day after that, the contractor is significantly penalized, and a number of days before that, they can get bonuses, really by the hour," Myler said. "So we're incentivizing them to get done as fast as possible and don't take more than 25 days."

One thing you will notice with the new Commercial Street Bridge is that it will be a bit wider.

"We will have wider shoulders on the new structure, which allows for a disabled vehicle to get off the road, a lot better than what we have today with with a smaller six foot shoulder," Myler said. "We're going to have a full, like 10 foot shoulder."

Again, the rush hour and daytime restrictions are complete until the full closure next July. Any restrictions before then will happen during overnight hours or possibly on weekends.