PennDOT announces major 2015 highway, bridge construction projects

With the arrival of warmer weather and construction season, PennDOT is mounting ambitious plans for work on state-maintained roads in the Pittsburgh area.

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District 11, which includes Allegheny, Beaver and Lawrence counties, will see 77 projects underway this year -- $272 million in construction. In Allegheny County alone, 133 miles of state roads will be paved or resurfaced.

(Scroll down to read a complete list of 2015 PennDOT road and bridge projects.)

Work is already being done on the Interstate 376/Parkway West improvement project, including reconstruction from Interstate 79 to the Fort Pitt Tunnel.

Drivers are bracing for delays and detours with so many projects planned for this year.

"When you're doing them all, that involves everybody. You can always take alternate routes, but I'm telling you, just one project at a time. That's my opinion," said Ruth Ann Henry, of Robinson Township.

A big traffic headache is coming this weekend. The Fort Pitt Tunnel outbound will be closed completely over the weekend for the removal of its ceiling. The closing from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday will mean big delays for some people heading home from NCAA tournament games at Consol Energy Center.

"It's a hard decision. We know it's going to impact people leaving that event. But again, being that it's nestled right in the middle of the weekend, we really didn't have any options, other than not doing this work this weekend," PennDOT District Executive Dan Cessna said. "And looking at the busy sporting season coming up with Pirates and Penguins, and hopefully Penguins playoffs, we really had to bite the bullet this weekend."

A major new project will start late this summer: the rehabilitation of the Liberty Bridge. Eventually, it will bring the closing of each of the four lanes, one at a time, over the course of the work, but the lane closing won't come until 2016. For the majority of next year, only three lanes will open on the bridge.

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PennDOT announces major 2015 highway, bridge construction projects