Turtle Creek bridge to shut down
Motorists traveling on Greensburg Pike from North Versailles Township into Turtle Creek on Thursday had a taste of the year-long inconvenience they can expect beginning next month.
A Verizon lineman was working on a pole just up the hill from the bridge, where Brayman Construction Corp. crews have been building a new span over the creek.
The $16.2 million project will replace the old bridge with a four-span, 663-foot steel girder bridge.
As Saxonburg-based Brayman moves into the second phase of work, the bridge will close on or around Nov. 5 so that demolition of the original can begin, according to project manager John Stewart.
In a letter released by Allegheny County Councilman Bob Macey, D-West Mifflin, Stewart said the bridge will be closed for approximately one year.
The existing bridge has been posted for 11 tons, with a 19-ton allowance for some combinations of trucks.
“That is a bridge that is overdue to be replaced,” county construction engineering manager Doug Aiken said in a 2012 interview. “We spent over $400,000 repairing that in 2010 just to keep it open for two to three years.”
Greensburg Pike connects Route 30 just west of the East McKeesport business district with Turtle Creek borough. It runs past the Great Valley Shopping Center and the Walmart Supercenter, then connects with Monroeville Avenue.
Two detours are shown on a map released with Stewart's letter. One takes traffic via Fifth Avenue in East McKeesport to the Patton Street Bridge and the Tri-Boro Expressway — Route 130 — in Wilmerding.
The other takes motorists on Route 30 across the Westinghouse Bridge into East Pittsburgh, where they can link up with Linden Avenue, Electric Avenue and the Tri-Boro.
For some living along First Street in North Versailles, which has its juncture with Greensburg Pike at the south end of the bridge, there's been a detour since March 2012, six months after work began on the first phase of the new bridge.
In one direction, motorists have traveled south on Greensburg Pike for approximately 1.25 miles, turned right onto Warren Drive and continued for 0.2 miles, followed by a left turn onto Route 30 and eastward travel for 0.1 miles to Navy-Marine Corps Way, another 0.2 miles on that road, then rights onto East Pittsburgh-McKeesport Avenue (and continue for 1 mile) and Versailles Avenue, which leads to the intersection with First Street.
It is reversed for northbound drivers.
Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.
