Squirrel Hill Tunnel Outbound Closing
SQUIRREL HILL (KDKA)- The outbound lanes of the Squirrel Hill tunnel will be closed this weekend.
The closure begins at 10 p.m. Friday night and runs until 6 a.m. Monday morning.
Crews will be paving parts of the tunnel, replacing tiles, working on a water line and working on other refurbishments.
"When folks travel through on Monday morning, there will be a new paved asphalt surface. In addition to that, we're going to do a cleaning on the outside of the tunnel," said Dan Cessna, of PennDOT District 11.
Detours will be posted in the area.
"During the business day, the business district will be open and the traffic will be routed through the neighborhood, and then vice versa," said Cessna. "Overnight we'll take the detour out of the neighborhood and detour folks through the business district."
Here are the detours PennDOT suggests:
Daylight detour (6 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
· Exit at Squirrel Hill (Exit 74)
· Make left onto Forward Avenue
· Continue taking slight right and stay on Forward Avenue
· Left onto Beechwood Boulevard
· Right onto Forbes Avenue
· Right onto South Braddock Avenue
· End detour at outbound Parkway East on-ramp
Night detour (8 p.m. to 6 a.m.)
· Exit at Squirrel Hill (Exit 74)
· Make left onto Forward Avenue
· Continue slight left/straight onto Murray Avenue
· Right onto Forbes Avenue
· Right onto South Braddock Avenue
· End detour at outbound Parkway East on-ramp
The inbound lanes of the tunnel will be open; however, there could be some short-term stoppages for equipment access and material removal.
But this weekend isn't the end of the work.
"We're going to continue to have overnight lane restrictions like we've been having through the end of September. We do believe by the end of September we'll have the entire tunnel complete," Cessna said.
Meanwhile, out on the Parkway West, a two-year overhaul project starts Monday.
"To completely rehabilitate the Parkway West between Fort Pitt Tunnel and Interstate 79," Cessna said.
The initial work overnight will remove the painted lane lines.
"We'll be striping new paint lines," Cessna said. "The lanes will be slightly narrower and that's in an effort to create more work space so we can continue to maintain two lanes of traffic during all peak time periods."
But part of that Parkway is three lanes wide.
"So, in some areas that currently have three, there will only be two," said Cessna.
But Cessna says they haven't determined when that will start.
"It's expected to be this fall, yes," he said.
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