Much-anticipated University Line project is making progress, Pittsburgh Regional Transit says
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pittsburgh Regional Transit said its much-anticipated University Line project is making progress.
Officials said despite the progress, the effort isn't without its challenges.
Its price tag is $291 million, but once done officials said the line project will streamline public transit between Downtown, Uptown and Oakland.
"You'll be able to get there in less than five minutes and it will be a huge economic development boost for the city," said Jeff Letwin, Pittsburgh Regional Transit board chair.
Ten years in the making, the project construction comes at a time when there are lots of orange signs and barrels between Oakland, Pittsburgh and all points in between.
"There's inconveniences with road work. But hey, this is Pittsburgh, where do we go where we don't have some road work somewhere," Letwin said.
Actual construction has just begun. Amy Silberman, the PRT's acting chief development officer, said so far, so good. But there's miles of work ahead and a lot of what's under the proposed path is antiquated, to say the least.
"Subsurface work has certainly been a unique challenge in this project. Some of these streets, not so much in Downtown but certainly as we head into the Uptown neighborhood with our next phase of construction, some of these streets have not been reconstructed in over 100 years. So, there's lots underground that we don't always know about until we start digging and seeing what we find."
The University Line project will have 23 new stations, plus transit and bike-specific lanes, focused between Fifth and Forbes avenues. The project will provide transit connections right through one of the busiest areas in the city.
"Fifty percent of the people who live in the city of Pittsburgh work in one of the two corridors," Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said.
Officials say they don't have a timeline for the project's completion.
