Westbound I-70 single lane this weekend
Drivers traveling Interstate 70 westbound at the south junction with Interstate 79 in South Strabane Township can expect a short single-lane restriction as crews demolish a bridge on the highway that is being replaced with a box culvert.
The single-lane closure will begin at 8 p.m. today and conclude no later than 6 a.m. Monday. Golden Triangle Construction of Imperial will demolish the bridge that took I-70 west over I-79 that is being replaced with a box culvert. Work will be done on an embankment, and then the area will be paved to connect with the box culvert. The eastbound bridge was removed last weekend.
Neither Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation overseeing the project, nor state police Lt. Douglas Bartoe, patrol section supervisor for Troop B in Washington, are expecting any traffic backups.
Predicted traffic troubles when the eastbound side was done never materialized last weekend.
There was concern that traffic could back up to the Murtland Avenue diverging diamond interchange project, about three miles to the west of the south junction.
“The single-lane restriction will only be about 800 feet long and will be right under the flyover,” Faieta said. “Unless there is a fender-bender in the construction area, traffic should be fine. I think fewer people are traveling because it is not vacation season.”
“Everything went well last weekend, and we expect less of a problem with the westbound side,” Bartoe said.
Faieta said the eastbound highway opened to traffic by late Sunday afternoon last weekend, and barring any inclement weather, he expects the contractor could finish before 6 a.m. Monday.
The work is part of a $36 million project that began in the fall of 2011.
It included the construction of a two-lane flyover ramp taking northbound I-79 over Vance Station Road to westbound I-70, replacing the notorious “killer curve” that was the scene of many crashes, some fatal, since the highway was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.