Travel ‘a little tricky’
Drivers traveling on Interstate 70 through the Murtland Avenue construction zone in South Strabane Township will see a traffic change this morning that will continue through November.
Work started about 8 p.m. Tuesday was expected to wrap up early today to switch the westbound traffic over to the eastbound side of the highway. Barriers were placed to separate the two lanes of traffic after the eastbound lanes were moved to the right earlier this month.
The westbound side of the highway will be rebuilt this year after the eastbound side was done last year as part of the project to construction a diverging diamond interchange.
“Drivers need to be aware of the new traffic patterns and pay attention to the signs,” said Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation overseeing the project.
For westbound drivers, the first crossover will be at the Beau Street exit.
“This will be a little tricky for drivers because the exit ramp for Beau Street is also there and will stay in the same place,” Faieta said. “We have asked state police to sit there during the switchover and slow vehicles down as they approach.”
“Drivers wanting to get off at Beau or Murtland need to stay in the right lane,” he added. “Drivers continuing through can be in the right or left lanes.”
Drivers wanting to get on I-70 west from Beau will use one of the temporary crossovers built for the project. There also will be crossovers for westbound vehicles wanting to get on and off at Murtland.
The crossover on the western end of the project will be after drivers go over Locust Avenue before the flyover bridge from I-70 eastbound to Interstate 79. Faieta said there will be a crossover for drivers wanting to go north on I-79 from I-70 west. Barriers will be set up on that ramp where it meets traffic coming from I-70 west to I-79 north. Faieta said there will be some restrictions when the barriers are set starting tonight into Thursday morning.
There were some concerns that once the eastbound lanes were moved there would be problems for vehicles coming from I-79 southbound merging onto I-70.
“Everything has been going good,” said state police Lt. Douglas Bartoe, patrol section supervisor for Troop B in Washington. “We have not had any problems, and there have only been minor backlogs during the evening rush hours.”
Troopers are continuing to do additional enforcement in the construction zone where the speed limit was reduced to 45 mph. Bartoe said troopers have written about 100 citations in the construction zone, mostly for speeding.
Once traffic is switched, crews will start milling asphalt in preparation for pavement removal. Faieta said work to demolish the bridge that takes the highway over Route 19 will start in late April or early May. He said it might require nightly restrictions on Route 19.
The switch was originally planned for last week, but the inclement weather postponed the move for five days.
Electrical work is being done on the traffic signals at the ramps to and from Route 19, Faieta said. Work is also being done on the concrete curbs. “Right now, we are about two weeks ahead of schedule,” Faieta said, adding that $30.15 million of the $51.2 million contract has been paid to Golden Triangle Construction, the general contractor for the project. “We have done 59 percent of the work and used 51 percent of the time for the project. We are in pretty good shape.”