Staff writer
Construction of a section of the Mon/Fayette Expressway between Nobles Road and the cloverleaf interchange at Routes 40 and 88 is slated to begin Oct. 1.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission held a public meeting at Denbo-Vesta Six fire hall in Brownsville on Wednesday to provide residents with an overview of the construction schedule and to review traffic detours and a blasting schedule. The project is a portion of Phase 2 of the Mon/Fayette Expressway that, when complete, will provide an approximately 12-mile stretch of highway between Brownsville and Uniontown.
"The turnpike's coming to town, and we'd like to be good neighbors," Mike Houser, project manager for the turnpike commission, told the approximately 60 people who attended. "We're going to make some dust and we're probably going to make some noise, but we'd like to be good neighbors."
Contractor Trumbull Corp. and Construction Manager SAI/ALCM/CM Services will start work Oct. 1 on Nobles Road near the proposed Monongahela River Bridge.
Trumbull will begin installing temporary crossovers, widening shoulders and installing turnarounds. Single-lane traffic restrictions will be implemented on Routes 88 and 40.
Three detours - at Nobles Road, Low Hill Road and old National Pike - will be established at different points during construction, beginning with the closure of a portion of Nobles Road when work gets under way next week.
Surveying for blasting that will occur during the project will begin in January, with actual blasting slated to being in the spring. Houser said a pre-blast survey will be done at no cost for property owners within 1,000 feet of the blast to ensure their homes are not damaged.
The Noble Road project is slated for completion in Oct. 2011.
Houser also encouraged residents to attend Community Day on the expressway Oct. 11 to tour the recently completed Phase 1 of the Mon/Fayette Expressway Uniontown to Brownsville project. That project includes about 9 miles of expressway from the Brownsville Connector (Redstone Way) interchange to the Route 51 connector (Northgate Highway) interchange that will provide access to Routes 40, 51 and 119 near Uniontown.