Another season of major construction delays for Route 28 motorists and the last phase of a multiyear improvement project on the Parkway East are among the highlights of PennDOT's construction program for the coming year.

"It's going to be a busy construction season," said Dan Cessna, District 11 executive for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Bridge rehabilitation and road reconstruction projects will dot the landscape and the department will add some high-tech flourishes, including an automatic anti-icing system on the Parkway West at the Carnegie interchange and three more Dynamic Message Signs that provide real-time traffic information.

Major rehabilitation of the Liberty Tunnels and Fort Duquesne Bridge will continue, with the bridge's twin decks closed some weekends and southbound Route 65 heading toward the bridge shut down for up to two weeks.

The epicenter of patience-testing construction will again be Route 28, where three separate projects will restrict traffic.

Work on an estimated $25 million to $40 million project to widen the highway from just north of the 31st Street Bridge to Millvale is expected to start in the spring. It will provide four standard lanes separated by a median barrier and eliminate the traffic light for through traffic at 40th Street.

One northbound and two southbound lanes will be open during the project, which has a projected June 2012 completion date.

Work on the $30 million to $40 million final phase of the decade-long Etna interchange project also will limit northbound traffic, which will cross over to the southbound side and be restricted to one lane.

The third project, already under way, is relocation of railroad tracks to prepare for total reconstruction of the segment from 31st Street inbound to the old Heinz plant. While that work won't have much impact on Route 28 traffic, it will require a one-month full closure of the 31st Street Bridge as a pier is relocated.

When all of the Route 28 work is done, drivers will have a wider, safer highway without the traffic-light bottlenecks at 31st and 40th streets. But with funding for the final stage of work still uncertain, the best-case scenario is for completion in 2014, Mr. Cessna said.

The last phase of an end-to-end rehabilitation of the Parkway East will close one of three outbound lanes from Churchill to Monroeville for about eight months.

On the Parkway West, work is to begin soon on substructure repairs to three mainline bridges at Carnegie, plus installation of a $1.1 million anti-icing system, which monitors air temperature and surface conditions and squirts a melting agent when warranted. That segment of highway has had chronic icing problems, Mr. Cessna said.

New message boards will flash instant alerts about accidents and jams to drivers on Interstate 79 northbound before the Route 51 interchange; the Parkway North inbound before Hazlett Street; and Route 22 westbound before the Parkway East/Pennsylvania Turnpike entrance.

PennDOT also will continue to add traffic cameras along major arteries, including the Parkway North and Interstates 79, 376, 579, and traffic signal upgrades are planned at 96 intersections.

The department will continue to emphasize repairs to bridges. One of the biggest upcoming projects is a two-year, $20 million to $25 million rehabilitation of the Boston Bridge over the Youghiogheny River between Elizabeth Township and Versailles.

Traffic will be maintained during business hours but the bridge will be fully closed on some weekends, causing a long detour.

A welcome improvement for South Hills motorists will be resurfacing of West Liberty Avenue from the Liberty Tunnels to McFarland Road in Mt. Lebanon, a project that will eliminate the "is it one lane or two lanes" guesswork that drivers now confront.

Mr. Cessna said the road will be striped with five lanes - two in each direction and a center lane for left turns. "This is an accident location. We're going to deal with it," he said. None of the current on-street parking will be removed, he said.

Funding uncertainty may cause revisions or delays to some projects, Mr. Cessna said. Congress has not acted on a new multiyear surface transportation bill, and so far has extended the old law, which expired Sept. 30.

The latest extension expires Friday. Because of a technicality, states currently are receiving 30 percent less federal funding than before the law expired, and if that continues, projects could be delayed or deferred, he said.

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