Tarentum Bridge closure results in delays, congestion for thousands of motorists

Pam Kristoff is one of many Alle-­Kiski Valley residents whose life is on both sides of a river, so closing a bridge throws a wrench into her daily routine.

Kristoff lives in Harrison and works across the Allegheny River in Lower Burrell. While others were coping Wednesday with the first day of the long-term closure of the Tarentum Bridge, she’ll deal with it when she goes to work Thursday.

She is planning to use the Freeport Bridge instead of the New Kensington Bridge, which is on the official detour route.

“That’s a disaster on a regular basis to begin with,” Kristoff said Wednesday while in Tarentum. “I can only imagine what it’s going to be like now.”

Traffic was indeed congested Wednesday on many New Kensington streets leading to the bridge. At one point in the morning, East Deer police Officer Nicholas Walter was running the light on the township’s end of the bridge to help traffic get out of New Kensington.

Behind him, traffic stretched down Freeport Road toward Tarentum.

“It is what it is,” Walter said, standing in weeds. “We’ll work with it.”

PennDOT closed the Tarentum Bridge for work just after midnight Wednesday. The lanes heading toward New Kensington are scheduled to be closed through Sunday, and the lanes heading toward Tarentum are expected to be closed through June 27.

Crews with contractor J.F. Shea Construction were removing expansion dams on the Tarentum end of the bridge Wednesday morning. It’s part of a $3.4 million rehabilitation project expected to be finished this fall.

The pedestrian sidewalk remained open.

On the New Kensington side, the road remains open to Shamey’s Gulf Service, a gas and service station Joe Shamey has owned for 56 years.

Shamey figures he’ll lose some business.

“We’ll tough it out. That’s all we can do,” he said. “I can’t control it.”

Despite advanced notice, the closure appeared to catch some drivers by surprise. Cars were seen making U-turns by Giant Eagle on the New Kensington side, while one woman drove past Shamey’s station to where the bridge is closed and turned around there.

Ashley Bodycombe, owner of the recently opened Ashley’s Kitchen in New Kensington, was pondering capitalizing on the increased traffic by her Ninth Street eatery, possibly by having one of her kids outside in a costume or having mini versions of her stuffed bread ready to sell to those able to pay cash.

“We’ll be here ready to serve everybody,” she said.

Traffic was at a standstill in both directions when Bodycombe got to her place about 9 a.m. She said a friend told her it took 45 minutes to get from the area of Valley High School to across the bridge.

“There’s not really anywhere else to go,” she said. “It’s going to be a mess, but we’re going to make it work.”

Karen Harbison of New Kensington said she saw a lot of drivers behaving badly as she played Frisbee with her acrobatic border collie, Minnie, in a grassy lot at Ninth Street and Fourth Avenue in New Kensington.

That included lots of honking and obscene hand gestures. Harbison said she hoped it would brighten motorists’ spirits to see Minnie play, and Harbison tried to help by flashing a smile and a thumbs-up to motorists.

“People are just so upset. They’re just angry,” she said. “It’s hard enough getting up in the morning. Why do you have to be mean?”