Cranberry Township Tunnel Project Halfway Completed, Second Half Of Work Set To Begin
CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- One of our region's most ambitious road projects has now hit the halfway point and that mean changes for drivers.
The MSA Thruway project involves creating a tunnel under Route 228 at its intersection with Interstate 79.
"The end goal is to reduce the traffic on 228," says Michael Malak, Cranberry's Director, Engineering & Environmental Services.
When finished, traffic coming off of Northbound 79 will have a dedicated right looping lane, "If you're looking to get into Cranberry Woods, which is in the southern business park or Cranberry Springs, which is the northern office complex to the north of 228. Right now you have to go through a series of signals. This MSA through a project will eliminate that requirement to go through those signals."
It will also eliminate left turns off 228.
So traffic trying to reach the Lemieux Complex and all businesses to the north will not have to get on 228.
Instead, they will loop down and use the new tunnel under 228.
Malak says eliminating the left turns is a major safety improvement.
Watch as KDKA's John Shumway reports:
The first half of the tunnel, the portion under the eastbound lanes of 228, is finished and now its time to build the other half.
So Malak says to expect a major change in the traffic flow on 228, "Right now, the traffic is on the northern side of 228. We're going to be shifting it to the southern side the portion that was actually put in the tunnel was constructed under the southern side of 228. We want to start working on the northern side so we're going to shift the traffic over to the southern side."
That is not a quick or easy process, "We're going to start working on that Tuesday night into Wednesday, and complete the changeover sometime during the day Wednesday.
Once the changeover is made, that traffic pattern will be in place for most of the rest of the project. "The anticipated schedule for completion is sometime this next summer."
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