Parkway East's Commercial Street Bridge reopens early
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
We're SO back. Photo: Chrissy Suttles/Axios
The Parkway East's new Commercial Street Bridge will reopen Monday evening — a week ahead of schedule, after 17 days of construction.
Why it matters: A major highway project completed early?!
Driving the news: I-376 will reopen to eastbound traffic around 8pm Monday, with westbound lanes following shortly after, Gov. Josh Shapiro and PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll announced Monday afternoon as they touted the massive infrastructure feat.
- PennDOT and law enforcement will help escort the first vehicles through.
- The $95 million project rebuilt a key stretch of one of Pittsburgh's busiest highways. The July 10 closure diverted roughly 100,000 motorists a day.
Flashback: The project's contract offered up to $2 million in incentives to finish before Tuesday and imposed penalties if the project slipped past the Aug. 3 deadline, per PennDOT.
- General contractor Fay, S&B USA Construction led the yearlong project to build the new Commercial Street Bridge alongside the 75-year-old span ahead of the old bridge's July 16 implosion.
- Subcontractor Mammoet last week slid the 22 million-pound replacement into place using a greased rail system and dozens of hydraulic jacks. The move took roughly seven hours instead of the planned 25 to 30, per PennDOT.
What they're saying: Carroll hailed it as one of the world's largest bridge slides: "We're looking at an engineering marvel," he said. The project spared drivers roughly four years of traffic disruptions, he added.
- Pitt structural engineering professor Kent Harries tells Axios that sliding a bridge into place is conceptually simple — like parallel parking a car — but the scale makes it remarkable.
- "You likely have little difficulty backing into a 10-foot-wide parking space. … If I asked you to do the same with a 54-foot tractor-trailer, you might balk," he said. "The Commercial Street slide goes perhaps one step further. … Easy in principle, not so much at scale."
Between the lines: The Commercial Street Bridge replacement joins Philadelphia's rapid I-95 repair in 2023 as a high-profile example that infrastructure projects don't have to drag on.
- Public officials on Monday credited financial incentives, a smooth bridge implosion, a record-fast bridge slide and an ambitious team for the early finish.
The bottom line: Lt. Gov. Austin Davis had a humble request for Pittsburgh drivers: If you can maintain your speed when the Squirrel Hill Tunnel reopens, "it'll change the traffic pattern in the region."