New Diverging Diamond interchange partially opens in Rostraver

ROSTRAVER, Pa. — As of Tuesday morning, drivers on Route 51 in Rostraver are met with a new traffic pattern at the interchange with Interstate 70.

“It’s definitely interesting,” said Bailey Middlekauf of Greensburg.

It’s called a diverging diamond. It’s the second one in the Pittsburgh region, and only the fourth in the state.

If you’re driving down 51, you’ll come to a light that will, instead of allowing you to go straight, make you shift into what would usually be the opposite lane of traffic.

“It was definitely different,” Middlekauf told Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek. “I had to check and see where I was going because I was like, ‘what’s goin’ on here?’”

This diverging diamond interchange has been part of a $120 million project that started back in 2022.

The work isn’t done yet. Right now, drivers are still down to just one lane across I-70.

PennDOT said the diverging diamond makes it safer for drivers so they don’t have to cross traffic while trying to get on and off of I-70.

“You eliminate conflict points, and you eliminate the severity of the crashes that could occur,” said Dominec Caruso, assistant construction engineer with PennDOT. “You no longer have the situation for a head-on or a T-boning situation. It would be more like sideswiping or glancing so it lessens the overall number of occurrences that could happen, it also lessens the severity of what can happen.”

Drivers agree.

“The yields that they had to begin with weren’t giving people enough time to get onto 70,” said Logan Butcher of Perryopolis. “So I think it will help eventually, but yeah, I’d like it to just be done pretty soon here.”

PennDOT said it’ll still be a few months before the full diverging diamond interchange is open, and the traffic cones are gone.

“Mother nature plays a big factor in that, but later this fall,” Caruso said. “We’re going to try to get there as fast as physically possible, but it will be done later this year.”

Then, the work on I-70 below this interchange should be finished by fall of 2026.

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