Motorists who use Interstate 79 to travel north through Allegheny County will have to deal with traffic delays starting Friday and continuing through early Monday. The reason: A $43 million rehabilitation project starts on the Neville Island Bridge.
PennDOT District 11 said the northbound lanes of the span will close from 8 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday as part of the project that will impact traffic in Coraopolis and Glenfield boroughs and Robinson and Neville townships.
Crews will conduct bridge and roadway concrete repairs, roadway patching, strip-seal replacements, bridge jacking for steel repairs, bridge painting and barrier spall repairs over the weekend.
Pennsylvania State Police will begin a slow roll of northbound I-79 traffic at the Crafton/Moon Run (Exit 60) interchange and proceed to direct all traffic to the detour route.
State and local police will be available to help keep traffic moving, but motorists should expect delays, PennDOT said. Other construction projects on the detour route will stop during the closure.
The posted detour will have northbound motorists exit at the Coraopolis-McKees Rocks exit and turn left on Route 51 to continue through Coraopolis. Motorists are then advised to stay in the left-hand lane and follow signs to Route 65 Sewickley.
The detour will then have motorists turn right and cross the Sewickley Bridge and enter southbound Route 65 (Ohio River Boulevard), take the left-hand ramp to I-79 toward Erie and at the split stay straight toward North 79 Erie, then turn left on Kilbuck Street and take the northbound ramp to I-79 Erie.
Northbound motorists also could avoid the detour by taking the Parkway West (Interstate 376) to the Parkway North (Interstate 279).
Contractor Trumbull Corp. will have four weekend closures in the northbound direction this year plus four in the southbound direction next year.
