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Parkway West Inbound Closed This Weekend; Construction On Track To Be Completed This Year

Summer is prime time for road construction, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is taking advantage of the mild weather to push forward on major construction on Parkway West (I-376).

The project also involves $14.2 million worth of repairs and upgrades to the Fort Pitt Tunnel, including concrete repair work to the tunnel walls, electrical updates, drainage improvements and resurfacing of the roadway. Work on the tunnel is expected to be finished by the spring of 2016.

Parkway West (I-376)

Whether traveling through the tunnel toward the city or away from it, drivers will continue to be impacted by the largest, most expensive project in the region — the $72.8 million improvement of the Parkway West.  PennDOT District 11 spokesman Steve Cowan said there will be more weekend closures to come. 

"There will definitely be additional weekend closures," said Cowan. "The original contract called for six. There very well could be more weekend closures than initially intended." 

The plan includes replacing bridge decks near the Carnegie interchange and other major repairs to mainline bridges along the corridor; replacement of the entire median barrier; reconstruction of the shoulders of the roadway; and finally the resurfacing the entire riding surface from Interstate 79 to the Fort Pitt Tunnel. 

The initial work began last summer. PennDOT hopes to have the bulk of the work finished by late 2015 with completion by the end of the year. Cowan said about 100,000 use the Parkway West daily. 

"Our goals is to try and get this done within basically one construction season," he said. "We're trying to limit the impacts over the course several years and compact that into just one construction season."  

This Weekend

Inbound (eastbound) Parkway West will be closed to traffic as well as the and the inbound side of the Fort Pitt Tunnel at 9:30 p.m. Friday through 6 a.m. Monday, weather permitting. Traffic will be detoured from I-79 (Exit 64A) to the Fort Pitt Bridge.

Crews from the Swank Construction Company will conduct paving operations on the roadway while crews from Mosites Construction and Development Company will continue tunnel ceiling removal and concrete repair work in the inbound Fort Pitt Tunnel. All inbound traffic will be detoured.