PennDOT looks to start major projects on I-70, Route 981 in Westmoreland

The latest in a series of interchange improvements along Interstate 70 and a long-discussed upgrade of the Route 981 corridor north of Mt. Pleasant are among major projects PennDOT plans to tackle in Westmoreland County this year.

Officials with Uniontown-based PennDOT District 12 said they expect to move forward with a revamp of the Route 51 interchange on I-70 in Rostraver.

That project, which has an estimated cost of $135 million, will replace an outdated cloverleaf interchange with a newer concept — a diverging diamond format. A similar design was used to update the Route 19 interchange with I-70, further west in Washington County.

The I-70 project website features a video to explain how the diverging diamond will function. The reconfigured interchange will have lanes of traffic on Route 51 switching, or diverging, to the opposite side of the road and back again, through a pair of signalized intersections. That will allow drivers to turn left from Route 51 onto I-70 without crossing oncoming traffic.

A pair of bridges will carry Route 51 over the interstate, replacing the existing single span. The revised interchange will include lengthened entrance and exit ramps.

An adjacent section of I-70 will see several improvements: a pair of 12-foot-wide travel lanes in each direction, 12-foot-wide shoulders and a 10-foot-wide median; and increased clearance under a Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad bridge.

Nearby, Finley Road will be relocated to form a four-way intersection with Routes 981 and 51. Route 51 will gain a new left-turn lane at Ridge Road.

PennDOT hopes to seek bids for the project early this year, with construction potentially beginning by summer, according to spokesman Jay Ofsanik. Work is tentatively slated to continue into 2025.

Funding is in place for PennDOT to construct all of the planned Laurel Valley Transportation Improvement Project. It will soften curves, improve intersections and include some new alignments along a roughly 11-mile stretch of the Route 981 corridor between Mt. Pleasant and the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity.

Construction of the southernmost portion, the first of three planned phases, is set to begin this year, with contractors Walsh Construction Co. taking on the $55 million effort.

Heading north from Route 819 to Norvelt in Mt. Pleasant Township, the revised roadway will veer west from the existing Route 981 alignment, beginning at a point north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike underpass. It will reunite with the existing road just south of the Waltons Lane intersection.

Traffic and safety data figured heavily in determining preferred intersection treatments, according to PennDOT.

Roundabouts are slated at three intersections in this first phase: Routes 819 and 981; Hecla Road, State Street and Route 981; and Mt. Pleasant, Kecksburg and Hecla roads at Route 981, which all converge in Norvelt.

PennDOT is partnering with Mt. Pleasant Area School District to develop landscaping at the Hecla Road-State Street roundabout, to serve as a gateway to the district’s administrative offices and high school.

There are six roundabouts planned along the corridor, including one already in use at the entrance to the airport.

The two remaining sections of the project, which are in the preliminary design stage, could see construction begin in 2025 and 2026.