Weekend Lane Closures Announced For Parkway East, Parkway North Work
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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – This is going to be an incredibly busy weekend in Pittsburgh.
Little Italy Days are underway in Bloomfield, the Pirates and Cubs are locked in a crucial weekend series at PNC Park, and the Steelers will be hosting fans for Family Fest on Sunday at Heinz Field. Not to mention all the shows and concerts in the Cultural District.
But PennDOT and its contractors are up against the wall to get paving work done before the colder weather arrives and the asphalt plants go into hibernation. So work is going to be done this weekend on the Parkway East and the Parkway North.
First up, The Parkway North. With the conclusion of the Friday evening rush hour, the barricades will be going up in the East Street Valley for the three miles leading up to McKnight Road.
"It's a three lane section, so they are going to take that down to a single lane. So they are going to be restricting two lanes the entire weekend until 6 a.m. Monday morning," PennDOT Dist. 11 Spokesman Steve Cowan said.
That work is needed to do concrete patching in preparation of laying down a new asphalt riding surface in the coming weeks.
The Parkway North restriction will be in place after all the Pirates games and after the Steelers' Family Fest.
Cowan suggests if you are leaving one of the major events, "motorists may want to look for an alternate route."
Eastbound fans leaving those events will also run into their own issues. The work on the Parkway East involves repaving from the Fort Pitt Bridge to the Birmingham Bridge. Here is how the work shapes up on the Parkway East.
The inbound Parkway will be down to a single lane from 10 p.m. Friday until about noon Saturday. That's important to note if you are traveling through town to a timely destination, like catching a flight at Pittsburgh International.
The outbound Parkway East is going to get the worst of it. Starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, one lane will be restricted until an hour and a half after the fireworks at the Pirates game are over. The then parkway will go to a single lane until 6 a.m. Monday.
Also, when the post-fireworks restrictions go into effect, all the ramps to the Parkway East from downtown will close. That means the ramp from the Fort Duquesne and Portal Bridge, the ramp from Stanwix Street, Market Street, Wood Street and Grant Street will be closed until rush hour Monday.
The Boulevard of the Allies will be the detour route to get out of town, but remember it narrows to a single lane at the Liberty Bridge.
And Cowan says PennDOT is already planning major work for next weekend despite the Steelers game with the Titans at Heinz Field.
"It's going to be impactful, no matter what weekend we work. We're going to impact fans of some sporting events," he said.
The number of available weekends is dwindling as they try to avoid regular season Steelers games, and the weekend when the Pirates are home and Pitt hosts Penn State at Heinz Field.
For more details on the Parkway East project and detours, click here.
