Parkway West upcoming construction (Pittsburgh, Carnegie: 2014, houses, live)

[captainmidnight]

This will be fun: First of three major Parkway West projects begins tonight - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An extra lane will be added outbound approaching the I-79 exit in Rossyln Farms. That stretch will be four (!) lanes. Then past the the I-79 overpasses, the extra lane will disappear and merge with the other lanes. Shortly after that is the existing merge around the Campbell's Run Road area. It is nice they are adding an extra lane, but I don't think that section really needs it. Plus you are adding another merge point and merging is always a challenge for fellow drivers in this region. I foresee traffic backups in this area in the future.

There will be two other projects. One is removing the ceiling in the Ft. Pitt Tunnel and the other is a $72 million reconstruction of the Parkway between the tunnels and I-79. This will include lengthening some on- and off-ramps in that stretch.

The last time they repaved this stretch was just ten years ago, which was to correct a botched mixture of SuperPave during paving work in 1998: Parkway West work begins on weekend, goes through July | TribLIVE

[DoubleStraps]

I don't think it's a coincidence that traffic gets terrible on the Parkway West where the two lanes turn into three, around Green Tree. Merging shouldn't be that hard, but apparently it is.

[lifepgh2op]

I noticed that Rosslyn Farms will now be getting noise barrier walls due to the lane expansion on the outbound side; while residents of Green Tree suffer and beg the state for the same but cannot get them due to the Parkway having been constructed before the homes next to it were.

Green Tree residents say noise from Parkway West keeps getting... | www.wpxi.com

[JoeP]

Carnegie and Green Tree interchanges need to be totally changed.

[Geeo]

Looks like they're adding that fourth lane outbound to match the fourth lane coming inbound approaching the 79 interchange. It seems to work well and funnels the off-ramp traffic to north and south 79 along two lanes.

Thank God they will be lengthening the on-ramps at Carnegie and Greentree. Those are both death traps and very unnerving.

I saw on KDKA-TV last night that longer-term plans are to add a fourth lane going outbound from the Ft. Pitt Tunnel, but that's 5 - 10 years down the road.

[JoeP]

There's not even a third lane by the tunnels.

[Blackbeauty212]

YAY! Now Outbound Parkway West can be just as big a parking lot as the Inbound..... Constantly needing to merge as lanes widen and condense are part of the problem now. Just like people want to widen the Parkway while leaving the tunnels at 2 lanes, yea that's just brilliant.

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by bmantz65

An extra lane will be added outbound approaching the I-79 exit in Rossyln Farms. That stretch will be four (!) lanes. Then past the the I-79 overpasses, the extra lane will disappear and merge with the other lanes. Shortly after that is the existing merge around the Campbell's Run Road area. It is nice they are adding an extra lane, but I don't think that section really needs it. Plus you are adding another merge point and merging is always a challenge for fellow drivers in this region. I foresee traffic backups in this area in the future.

There will be two other projects. One is removing the ceiling in the Ft. Pitt Tunnel and the other is a $72 million reconstruction of the Parkway between the tunnels and I-79. This will include lengthening some on- and off-ramps in that stretch.

The extra lane is needed since the westbound highway is a) climbing a hill at that point, and b) still over capacity. And a total reconstruction project is not going to cost only $72M; all that's happening are some minor tweaks, like the lengthening of acceleration and deceleration lanes, and construction of a new median barrier.

Originally Posted by DoubleStraps

I don't think it's a coincidence that traffic gets terrible on the Parkway West where the two lanes turn into three, around Green Tree. Merging shouldn't be that hard, but apparently it is.

The bottleneck has nothing to do with people's ability to merge, and everything to do with the fact that the westbound Parkway West constricts from three lanes down to two, making a highway that's already severely over capacity even more severely over capacity. The same thing happens on I-85 northbound past I-985 here in Georgia, when the number of lanes drops from three to two. If you send water through a three-inch-diameter hose that suddenly narrows to a two-inch-diameter hose, you'll get lots of churning and turbulence near the point of constriction. A highway is no different.

Originally Posted by lifepgh2op

I noticed that Rosslyn Farms will now be getting noise barrier walls due to the lane expansion on the outbound side; while residents of Green Tree suffer and beg the state for the same but cannot get them due to the Parkway having been constructed before the homes next to it were.

Those houses were built too damn close to the highway, as were the industrial buildings on the westbound side. This is the same problem that delayed proper reconstruction of I-70 south of Pittsburgh. Either the houses or the industrial properties are getting whacked when the highway is widened. As it is right now, the sound walls cannot be built, or there'd be three or four houses with barely any backyard left.

Originally Posted by JoeP

Carnegie and Green Tree interchanges need to be totally changed.

There are plans for a total reconstruction of the Carnegie interchange, including longer acceleration and deceleration lanes, improved ramp geometry and a new overpass. As for the Green Tree interchange, I think a SPUI would be perfect there, since it can handle a high volume of traffic in a small footprint. Another challenge there is the squeeze between the bronze office tower on the westbound side, and the water tower on the eastbound side. But these are the kinds of problems that civil engineers are paid to solve.

Originally Posted by Geeo

Looks like they're adding that fourth lane outbound to match the fourth lane coming inbound approaching the 79 interchange. It seems to work well and funnels the off-ramp traffic to north and south 79 along two lanes.

Thank God they will be lengthening the on-ramps at Carnegie and Greentree. Those are both death traps and very unnerving.

I saw on KDKA-TV last night that longer-term plans are to add a fourth lane going outbound from the Ft. Pitt Tunnel, but that's 5 - 10 years down the road.

If they do that, then I hope they widen the interior shoulder accordingly. If you're going to have more than two lanes in one direction, then AASHTO dictates that a full interior shoulder is included. I also think they'd have to replace one or both of the W&LE Railroad bridges over the highway in order to have enough room for that kind of expansion.

Originally Posted by JoeP

There's not even a third lane by the tunnels.

There is a third lane westbound. It forms on the right, immediately after the highway passes under the W&LE Railroad Bridge near Saw Mill Run Boulevard.

If either of the W&LE railroad bridges over the Parkway West get replaced soon, that means that a widening of the entire Parkway West is imminent.

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

YAY! Now Outbound Parkway West can be just as big a parking lot as the Inbound..... Constantly needing to merge as lanes widen and condense are part of the problem now. Just like people want to widen the Parkway while leaving the tunnels at 2 lanes, yea that's just brilliant.

Saw Mill Run Boulevard can be used as an alternate route until the Fort Pitt Tunnel expanded. An expansion of the Parkway West would more than likely be done in conjunction with a reconfiguration of the Saw Mill Run Boulevard interchange.

[JoeP]

that's not a third lane - it's simply part of the green tree interchange

[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by JoeP

that's not a third lane - it's simply part of the green tree interchange

No it isn't; the lane is a mile and a half long. It's a climbing lane for trucks going up Green Tree Hill. You'll notice that there's a third eastbound lane west of Green Tree Hill as well. There just happens to be an interchange at the top of the hill to provide convenient lane drops in both directions.