Dec 2, 2016 2 min read

Drivers will no longer have to take a circuitous route to get from Pike Street in Canonsburg to the south side of the borough across Chartiers Creek.

The South Central Bridge, which had been closed for replacement since the middle of July, reopened to traffic Wednesday afternoon.

The former span, an 82-year-old structure, was demolished and replaced with a steel, multigirder bridge designed to handle the 6,200 vehicles that travel across it every day.

While the official detour route set by the state Department of Transportation took traffic on Route 519 into Houston and onto Pike Street, many drivers used several of the side streets to get from South Central onto South Jefferson Avenue and Pike Street.

Police Chief Al Coghill said the biggest issues during the closure were the complaints about traffic backing up on Jefferson at the intersection with Pike, particularly when students were coming and going and during morning and evening rush hour.

“People wanted us to put an officer at the intersection, but that just would have backed up traffic at another intersection,” Coghill said. “It was just one of those inconveniences.”

Canon-McMillan School District also had to change some bus routes, using Jefferson as well as Strabane and Chartiers avenues.

The bridge had been slated to open in the middle of November, but delays in relocating utility lines pushed back the opening, said Scott Faieta, PennDOT assistant construction engineer.

“Originally, we were going to put down temporary paving just to get the bridge reopened,” Faieta said. “But the nice weather allowed the contractor to put down the permanent surface.”