August Road Construction Woes

It seems like everywhere I go these days there are orange cones and construction projects - none of them fun for motorists. My favorite (note the sarcasm here) is the lovely "chip sealing" that PennDOT and many local townships use to extend the lifetime of a roadway - basically, a layer of oil or tar is applied to the roadway and then covered with a layer of gravel chips. This is always fun for drivers the first few days after application as the loose gravel flys around, slowing down traffic and threatening to chip the paint on your car.

But the local road improvement isn't the only construction going on. There's the "Missing Ramps" project to finally construct those mysteriouly missing ramps connecting the Parkway West and I-79 in Robinson Township which should wrap up next year, a pavement improvement on I-79 btween the Neville Island Bridge and I-279, the Boulevard of the Allies bridge construction, the North Shore Connector, and many, many more. For the curious, you can check out what's happening on many of Pittsburgh's major roadways in real time on the PENNDOT Traffic Cams. Or call the PennDOT Construction Hotline at (412) 429-6035 for the most current PennDOT projects. The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership does a good job of keeping up with the construction projects affecting travel into and out of downtown. These and other links to Web sites devoted to Pittsburgh area construction updates and detours can be found on our Pittsburgh Traffic Advisories page.