Fort Duquesne Bridge construction looming
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Federal and state dignitaries will be in town tomorrow to herald the start of a $23.4 million rehabilitation of the Fort Duquesne Bridge.
The work will span about 15 months and bring a welter of ramp and lane restrictions, closings and detours, mostly at night and on weekends.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has not announced details yet, but construction plans posted on its Web site call for full closure of the bridge in one direction or the other over at least six weekends, with the shutdowns occurring from 9 p.m. on Fridays to 5 a.m. Mondays.
The plans call for work on the lower level of the double-deck bridge first, including three weekends of full closures affecting traffic heading toward Downtown from the North Side. That will be followed by work on the upper level, which carries traffic in the opposite direction. It also is expected to close for three weekends.
Work will not occur on both decks simultaneously, according to the plans.
Also planned are a variety of ramp closings with detours lasting from a few days to as long as two months.
The full bridge closures will be advertised on message signs to be placed along major roads and highways leading Downtown. An estimated 80,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily.
The primary detour will be via the West End Bridge, with an alternate detour using Crosstown Boulevard and the Liberty Bridge.
The project will be officially launched at a ceremony on the North Shore tomorrow. Scheduled to attend are Victor Mendez, recently appointed as administrator of the Federal Highway Administration; U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Forest Hills; and PennDOT Secretary Allen Biehler.
The project is funded by the federal economic stimulus program, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
The Fort Duquesne Bridge was built over the Allegheny River in the early 1960s and became infamous as the "Bridge to Nowhere" because the segment linking it to the North Side was not completed for another six years. It opened to traffic in October 1969.
The contractor on the rehabilitation project, Trumbull Corp., will be working on 16 different spans that make up the bridge and its elaborate network of ramps.
The bridge, in addition to carrying much of the traffic to PNC Park and Heinz Field, will be a principal access route for the Rivers Casino, which opens Sunday.
General manager Ed Fasulo said he wasn't aware of specific plans for traffic restrictions, but said the casino would take them in stride.
"Anytime they potentially disrupt access it's a concern. But it's one of those things that has to be done. There's never a good time to do it. We understand that it's for the public good," he said. "We'll try to make the best of it."
First Published August 5, 2009 12:02 am
