A new phase of the Penn Avenue reconstruction project begins this week, and with it, headaches for East End commuters and businesses straddling Penn in Bloomfield and Garfield.
Gulisek Construction began detouring traffic around the project on Monday. The City of Pittsburgh said it expects the reconstruction to go on for two spring-to-fall construction seasons, meaning work is currently projected to end in fall 2027.
Utility work has already disrupted portions of the corridor, and 45th St. at Penn Avenue remains closed to through traffic while work continues on the UPMC Children’s Heart Institute.
Drivers headed east through the corridor will be redirected via Main Street to Liberty Avenue, Baum Boulevard and Negley Avenue around the construction. Eastbound local traffic in Garfield will be routed parallel to Penn via Broad and Fairmount streets. Penn will remain open to all westbound traffic. Eastbound buses will continue to travel along Penn until Winebiddle Street and Friendship and Roup avenues, with three stops temporarily out of service between Evaline and Graham streets.
The city says the detours may be modified “as conditions require.” Temporary traffic calming measures, including rubber speed bumps and temporary speed tables, will be added along the Winebiddle/Friendship/Roup detour.
Phase I of the project in the early 2010s resulted in significant disruption along Penn but saw the addition of improved pedestrian infrastructure, updated signals and landscaping elements, as well as a new road surface. A different section of Penn Avenue in the Strip District was recently at the center of a local debate about bike lanes. Some area business owners have been vocal about the potential impact of the various projects.
The project website says coordination with utilities could have caused greater disruptions, and the city cautions residents to direct questions about their water and gas to the utility companies.
Penn Avenue isn’t the only disruptive construction project planned for this season. A section of Parkway East is due to close for 25 days this summer while the Commercial Street Bridge is replaced. Allegheny County also announced its “largest road project ever undertaken” to improve a section of Campbell’s Run Road in Collier and Robinson townships. That project will include realigning a section of Boyce Road, the construction of nine retaining walls and improvement of signals and utilities along the route.
