Route 28 construction 70% done; the rest is coming — eventually
PennDOT will complete about 70% of the work for the Route 28 Highland Park interchange by the end of the year as well as 40% of the Harmar-to-East Deer improvement project.
A third, related project on the expressway will be mostly finished by the end of the year.
The $15.3 million project from Exit 7 (Delafield Avenue, near Aspinwall) to just south of Harmar, with some single-lane restrictions, will wrap up in early December with some work to complete early next year, PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said.
The other two projects — the $47.3 million Highland Park interchange and the Harmar-to-East Deer improvement project — will be nearly finished by the end of next year, said Jason Zang, assistant executive for construction for PennDOT District 11.
“The completion of these projects will be a huge improvement for everyone,” Zang said. “When we are done, we are out of there for 10 to 15 years.”
The three projects total about $90 million.
27 bridges, 35 ramps
The largest project adds additional lanes northbound and southbound to the Highland Park Bridge interchange bottleneck.
Collectively, the roadwork provides improvements and reinforcement to 27 bridges and 35 ramps over 10 miles from the Highland Park Bridge to Exit 13 (Russellton/Creighton), Cowan said.
However, the confluence of three projects at the same time has taxed motorists’ patience as they snake slowly through the construction zones, especially over the past month.
“It’s frustration at this point,” said Travis Preisner, 30, of Vandergrift, an administrator of the “Dont Wait on 28!” Facebook page. The years of traffic jams and road construction on one of the region’s major arteries have resulted in more than 26,000 followers on the page.
“The nicest word that we could use, especially with what they are doing with Tarentum to Harmar, is it’s a nightmare.” he said. “However, PennDOT has hard workers, and it’s a tough job that they do.”
The construction zones are impacting between 51,000 and 67,000 vehicles a day between the Highland Park Bridge and Harmar, and 47,000 vehicles a day north of Harmar, Cowan said.
The recent traffic backups are caused by the latest project — a $27.68 million rehabilitation and repaving of the highway from Harmar to East Deer — that started this year.
Pavement ‘falling apart’
PennDOT’s decision to do that project and the improvements from the Delafield exit to Harmar at the same time emerged because the highway needed the repairs and the money was there, Zang said.
The stretch of Route 28 north of the Delafield Avenue exit to Creighton hasn’t been paved in 15 years, he said.
“The pavement was falling apart,” Zang said. “People who drive and see the condition of the pavement know it was falling apart.”
Not so visible was the need for improving and repairing 13 bridges and 13 ramps from Harmar to East Deer, Cowan said.
“We have to make hard decisions, juggling the needs of the district with funding and the uncertainty of funding,” Zang said. “Luckily, we were able to get the money for both northern Route 28 projects, and that is why we are doing both.”
If the money weren’t available and if PennDOT put off the two northern projects, the agency would be “holding the road together with repairs and getting in motorists’ way — and wasting money,” Zang said.
He said PennDOT contractors will work as long as temperatures are favorable, typically until Thanksgiving.
Zang and Cowan said PennDOT contractors will continue working 12-hour shifts, six days a week to complete the projects as quickly as possible.
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