All around Pittsburgh, it's impossible to miss the signs of summer construction season.
The parkways, north, east and west all have summer construction plans. That is going to impact people heading to and from work, to Kennywood for some family fun, to PNC Park for a Buccos game and to all the summer concerts lined up this year.
PennDOT has more than 300 projects planned in six counties this summer. One of the biggest projects is the Parkway North Improvement Plan. This year, the work is happening in the northbound lanes and is a completely different project than what we saw last year.
"You have all these people combining to then get into two lanes," says Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, PennDOT's top executive in the Pittsburgh area.
RELATED: Detailed descriptions of PennDOT projects around Pittsburgh this summer
This year's project condenses everyone down to two lanes quickly, with restrictions from the North Shore to Camp Horne Road.
Just beyond McKnight Road, express traffic shifts into the HOV lanes and then into the southbound lanes. Local traffic must travel in the right lane with an exit option.
The project is lengthening the Madison Avenue, Veterans Bridge and Perrysville Avenue outbound on-ramps. Crews will also work on concrete patching and new asphalt, bridge preservation, overhead sign structure replacement, lighting improvements and HOV lane repairs. In addition, crews will be installing an anti-icing system on the McKnight Road area overpass.
The next traffic pattern change is expected in June and the project will last until 2019.
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On the Parkway West, crews are fixing crumbling concrete problems. There is a lot of construction happening at Business 376 and the Beaver Valley Expressway.
The $42 million, two-year project is in its final stretch. Crews will still need to shift two eastbound lanes into the westbound lanes for work this year. The ramps at the McClaren Road interchange are still closed for now. The ramps from eastbound Interstate 376 to westbound Business Loop 276 will close for more than two months. During this time, drivers will need to expect some lengthy detours and delays.
On the Parkway East, drivers trying to get to PNC Park or Kennywood will have to be prepared for a lot of work. There is a major repaving project planned from the Fort Pitt Tunnel all the way out to Edgewood, and more patching work to Monroeville.
"I could see them doing this as soon as they can in the summer but there's so much work that needs done," Moon-Sirianni said. "It's a long stretch and we can only do it in small segments."
Most of that work will be scheduled for nights and weekends, but PennDOT says to be prepared for some delays.
Drivers heading in and out of Downtown do have some good news: the three-year Liberty Bridge and Tunnel project is wrapping up. There are still express lane restrictions and at least two weekend closures planned, but the work is expected to be done in August.
We also took a look at some smaller projects happening in busy parts of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
A resurfacing project on Forbes Avenue has started in Oakland and will last until November. That $10 million project will happen mostly at night to try and avoid major issues with all the hospital and college traffic. Work includes repaving and signal and curb upgrades. There will also be a new pedestrian crossing between South Bouquet Street and Bigelow Boulevard. Crews will add painted bike lanes along Forbes Avenue from Bigelow Boulevard to Margaret Morrison Street.
In the North Hills, there is work wrapping up on McKnight Road this summer. Crews will be working at intersections to improve the adaptive signals down this busy shopping stretch. Once that work is done, the signals should be able to all work together to get traffic flowing smoothly.
If drivers are traveling along routes 51 and 19 coming from the Parkway West to the West End, they will run into a $20 million project. Traffic will be down to one lane, long-term.
In addition to reconstructing the pavement, work there will include replacing the Shaler Street Bridge. That work won't really get going until 2019.
Channel 11 will be checking in on these projects throughout the summer. You can get traffic updates all morning long on Channel 11 Morning News starting at 4:30 a.m.
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