Posted on 04/18/2021 8:49:53 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Steve Hrvoich stood in the year-old valley beneath girders for the new northbound bridge on Interstate 79 on Thursday as gigantic dump trucks known as triple 7s whizzed by, hauling up to 100 tons of dirt each from the east side of the highway to the west.
Crews for Walsh Construction II were a few days away from completing what Mr. Hrvoich, the construction engineering manager for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, called “the big eastern spread.” The crews moved 2 million cubic yards of earth from the eastern side of the valley, clearing space to install thousands of feet of drain pipes before building a ramp to I-79 and finishing the 13.1-mile, $900 million Southern Beltway.
They hauled the dirt to the western side, dumping it in a huge pile called an “optional median embankment” in the center of another looping ramp. A key element of cost control on such a major project is to keep excavated material on site, reusing it in some way rather than paying to haul it off.
After four years, most of the mainline paving and bridge work for the toll road is done. Finishing touches such as road signs, line painting and toll gantries will be come over the summer.
Sprint to the finish
Now, the sprint is on to finish by mid-October the ramps to and from I-79 that will link Washington County communities to the south with the new highway for an easier route to Pittsburgh International Airport.
Ramps to and from the new highway to I-79 for motorists coming from Allegheny County to the north probably won’t be ready until spring 2022.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Now that’s infrastructure.
I’d say that is a Trump infrastructure project.
Pittsburgh is one of the most challenging cities to drive around and thru. GPS gets lost.
Yep, if yins can drive in Pittsburgh, yims kin drive anywhere.
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