PITTSBURGH — PennDOT engineers say 100-thousand vehicles use the Parkway East daily. The heavily used highway hasn’t had any significant changes to its interchanges since it was built in the early 1950s.
PennDot Executive for District 11, Jason Zang said, “It’s such a challenging area. We’re working in such a tight corridor as it is. When they put the parkway in back in the 50′s they just carved it right through neighborhoods.”
Jason Zang with PennDot says the approach engineers used when building 376 over 70 years ago - will not be the same for the Parkway East Squirrel Hill Interchange Improvement Project.
Zang said, “We don’t want to move or relocate people. That’s the last thing we want to do.”
PennDot laid out its plans to a crowded auditorium at Greenfield Elementary where it showed renderings of four different construction alternatives.
“We’re trying to think about this from every angle. Parkway safety, residential safety and then the local traffic safety,” Zang explained.
Interchanges both on and off the parkway east on the city side of the Squirrel Hill tunnel will get updated - with the work starting just west of the Greenfield Bridge Overpass.
Jacob Greenberg lives right on the border of the interchange.
Jacob Greenberg said, “It’s about once a week that I see the semis bust their tire on that curve and I would say at least twice a month that I see somebody wreck on that sharp curve or rear end or something like that.”
PennDOT plans to redesign all on and off-ramps, improve retaining walls, bridges and sidewalks.
Theresa Nightingale lives in Beechwood. She’s worried she and her elderly neighbors could lose parking.
Theresa Nightingale said, “There’s no parking on top, there’s no parking on the sides - I’m not sure where everybody would go. We just need to make sure there’s parking and make sure that the folks can access it safely - especially our seniors.”
PennDot says it continues to collect feedback from people in the area. Work is slated to start in about 4 years.
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