Parkway East Could Re-Open Sooner Than Expected

The Parkway East could reopen sooner than expected.  PennDOT’s Commercial Street Bridge Replacement project closed I-376 in both directions between the Squirrel Hill Tunnel and Edgewood Swissvale exit July 10. It was originally slated to reopen Aug. 3^rd.  On Wednesday, Secretary of Transportation Mike Carroll said the project is running ahead of schedule, and the Parkway is now anticipated to reopen in “the middle of next week.”  Carroll called the project an “immaculate construction,” saving drivers four years of traffic restrictions by condensing them into less than a month.  “Knowing the Commercial Street Bridge is a main artery into the city, every single day that this closure has occurred counts, and it’s not lost on me that our work to reopen the Parkway is critically important, so important, in fact, that the crews have been working 24 hours a day each day that we’ve had the Parkway closed,” Carroll said.  The $95 million project recently saw a new bridge deck slide 102 feet to replace the old deck, which was imploded.