Parkway North HOV lanes remain closed due to repairs, impacting around 30,000 drivers daily
PennDOT found five bridge piers considered "high priority" with problems. 18 other piers will also be repaired during the traffic restrictions. PennDOT emphasized that the open lanes are safe. If there was any doubt, they would be shut down.
The closed HOV lanes will put more stress on the I-279 main lines in both the morning and afternoon. As the repair work began with a single cracked pier, it has now extended to quite a few more, the most critical of which is holding up the I-579 main line on the north end of the Veterans Bridge.
"We've got to utilize the HOV to maintain mainline, 279, traffic while we perform the repairs," said Jason Zang, PennDOT District 11 executive. "The repairs require us to jack the beams off of the substructure, off of the piers and we can't do that with the traffic on them."
While crews continue the aforementioned work to make the repairs, all southbound destined mainline I-579 traffic will be diverted onto the HOV Lane just south of McKnight Road.
"Traffic wants to go to the Veterans Bridge, and I-579 will have to cross into the HOV lanes there, and then it will cross back out on the main span of the Veterans Bridge over the Allegheny River," said Zang.
This will result in a complete reversal of the pattern drivers have been taking since the Parkway North opened in 1989. Traffic to the Veterans Bridge will now have to get over to the left to get into the cross under the Swindel Street Bridge.
It's going to take crews until July 11 to get everything configured and the switch made before they can even start the repairs on the southbound side.
Zang said it will take two months to do all that work and then switch it over to a northbound crossover.
The HOV lane is closed until further notice and when that northbound crossover happens, the ramp from southbound Route 28 to the Veterans Bridge, which carries 11,000 vehicles a day, will also close.
The biggest wrinkle in all of this will be for the 30,000 drivers who are used to coming down through the East Street valley on the right side to get to the Veterans Bridge. They will now have to get to the left side at McKnight Road to get into the crossover onto the HOV lane.
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