Category: News || By Submitted Report

Crews will resume work on the Boston Bridge this Thursday --- weather permitting --- as a $17.3 million rehabilitation of the span continues.

The northbound lanes from Boston into Versailles will be completely closed from Thursday night through Friday morning so that workers can reinstall the paint containment system, says Jim Struzzi, district spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. Southbound traffic will still be able to use the bridge.

Work began in September to replace beams, bearings and expansion joints; the steel and concrete bridge deck; and the sidewalks and railings on the nearly 1,200-foot bridge, which was built in 1931 and daily carries about 17,000 vehicles. The bridge carries state Route 48 over the Youghiogheny River between Versailles and Elizabeth Township.

The official detour for passenger cars takes traffic bound for McKeesport south on Route 48 to Finney Road; then west to Liberty Way, north to Washington Boulevard, down Rebecca Street to West Fifth Avenue, across the Jerome Avenue Bridge into Downtown, then onto Route 148 (Walnut Street) and back to Boston.

Trucks are required to take Route 48 south to Route 51; then take Route 51 north to Route 837 north, across the McKeesport-Duquesne Bridge, onto Route 148 and then back to the Boston Bridge.

Work on the Boston Bridge will continue through this fall. Normal traffic patterns will be maintained during daylight hours from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., Struzzi says, but lanes will be restricted to 10 feet wide and periodic 15-minute traffic stoppages may occur in either direction at anytime.

In addition, one of the sidewalks on the bridge is currently closed to pedestrians. General contractor is Trumbull Corp. of Pittsburgh.

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