PA 28 Construction Updates

[DBR96A]

Whichever contractor designs and fabricates those signs should get all the contracts statewide. They do an excellent job, and even the Clearview font looks good on the signs they do. It must be a Pittsburgh-area company, because I seldom ever see poorly-fabricated or half-assed "big green signs" in the Pittsburgh area.

Some contractor up in northern Pennsylvania seems to do the worst job. Even the new signs they do aren't "breakaway" signs, which means the whole thing could come down on you if you crash into one. Also, their Clearview font looks even more cartoonish than normal. If you're not familiar with what I'm talking about, just examine some of the new signs on I-81 north of Scranton. I think there are some on I-90 near Erie too.

[Mr_Northside]

As I predicted it!  I thought those two exits would get numbers!  Now, let's see if they add numbers for them coming NB for the ramps under the Veterans Bridge.  Are these the only signs up with new numbers for those ramps?  Or are the new gore signs with #'s up too?

I didn't notice any new signs other than these last night.  Almost all of the signs (heading SB) after these were put up when they finished the ramp to 279-SB, so they're still pretty "young", and might not get touched.
They're probably out of the scope of this project (in fact, they haven't started the last mile or so, near the old church and auto body shop); so I'm not sure when PennDOT will get around to slapping some tabs and gore signs up.

Whichever contractor designs and fabricates those signs should get all the contracts statewide. They do an excellent job, and even the Clearview font looks good on the signs they do. It must be a Pittsburgh-area company, because I seldom ever see poorly-fabricated or half-assed "big green signs" in the Pittsburgh area.

I'll agree with that statement.... THOUGH there is a crop of really ugly signs on the Parkway West around the US-22/30/PA-60 exit in the Robinson area.  I think someone might have a photo of them (I remember a discussion about them), but they're in GSV:
http://goo.gl/maps/wLCzR

[rickmastfan67]

I think someone might have a photo of them (I remember a discussion about them), but they're in GSV:
http://goo.gl/maps/wLCzR

That would have been me that took the photo.  Don't remember what thread though I posted it in.  I'll see if I can find that post later and link it here.

EDIT: Here you go.

[ARMOURERERIC]

I wonder if there will e an auxillary sign like (376) east Monroeville USE Veterans Bridge

[rickmastfan67]

Sounds like we're getting 2 lanes NB on PA-28 by Sept. 16, or the contractor will be fined.

http://blogs.post-gazette.com/news/the-roundabout/38843-more-relief-for-route-28-drivers

[DBR96A]

I'll agree with that statement.... THOUGH there is a crop of really ugly signs on the Parkway West around the US-22/30/PA-60 exit in the Robinson area.  I think someone might have a photo of them (I remember a discussion about them), but they're in GSV:
http://goo.gl/maps/wLCzR

I think that might be what the Allegheny County Airport Authority wanted. Notice the lighting over the signs instead of under them? That's a tell-tale sign that they were assembled by the Airport Authority.

[NE2]

Notice the lighting over the signs instead of under them? That's a tell-tale sign that they were assembled by the Airport Authority.

[citation needed]

[PAHighways]

I think that might be what the Allegheny County Airport Authority wanted. Notice the lighting over the signs instead of under them? That's a tell-tale sign that they were assembled by the Airport Authority.

The airport authority has no jurisdiction over 376.  The guides on it in Robinson and Moon have downward-facing lighting due to them being in the approach to Pittsburgh International.

[rickmastfan67]

We have 4 lanes (2 in both directions) @ the 31st Street Bridge again for the first time in 3 years.  Unfortunately, it will be short lived, but still, will help out traffic for awhile till they put it back to just one lane in that area for another year.

[Mr_Northside]

Indeed....


I thought about going past certain "blocks" to get a better angle / shot, but didn't feel like chancing it.

[Mr_Northside]

New signals are being installed at the end of the 31st St. Bridge...





The fact the NB offramp will get a left arrow leads me to believe that NB 28 traffic will be able to go up Rialto St. for the first time.  (at least for the first time in a long time, if ever)

[ARMOURERERIC]

I grew up in the area and had been on Rialto scores of times in my youth, looking at the grades involved, why could they have not done more to realign Rialto with 31st Street?

A little fun fact:

This grade of Rialto was know to the locals as "pig hill" well into the late 1970's.  This was due to the many properties on Mount Troy that raised pigs.  There were multiple livestock slaughter companies on Herr's Island into the early 1970's and up until 1965 there was a holding structure near Wicklines and Rialto for farmers to herd their animals to, then at late night, there would be herding of all the animals down Rialto, across East Ohio, right on River to 30th street to Herr's Island.  There would be literally 1000's of pigs moved every night down the hill and across East Ohio.  Herr's Island pretty much died in 1972 after a massive fire erupted in a paint factory located there.

[Alps]

Re: Rialto:

http://goo.gl/maps/ENbwA

That grade at the bottom is between 2:1 and 3:1, based on the sidewalk steps. 2:1 would be a 50% grade, and 3:1 would be 33.3%. Either one would basically top the charts for steepest public street in the USA.

[ARMOURERERIC]

Check out Logan Street a bit to the east in Millvale.

[Alex]

I love your periodic updates over the years on this construction Mr_Northside. While I have never been on that stretch of roadway, following this thread has always peeked my interest.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Indeed, I quite like seeing photos of projects taken during construction.  It's much easier to follow then trying to follow a text update for an area that I'm not too familiar with.

[rte66man]

I love your periodic updates over the years on this construction Mr_Northside. While I have never been on that stretch of roadway, following this thread has always peeked my interest.

That's OK, you can look at it w/o peeking 

I'm assuming you meant "pique" 

[Mr_Northside]

31st Street Bridge to reopen Monday at Route 28

They had all the signals in red-flashing mode around 7pm this evening.  I'm looking forward to this being open.

Also, the article answered my question about the closing of Rialto st. during winter (at least for this year)

[rickmastfan67]

Great news!  My dad is happy about this. lol.  Only took 60 years to complete it.

Also, there's a video on this @ KDKA's website:
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2013/11/21/31st-street-bridge-to-reopen-to-route-28-traffic/

[rickmastfan67]

31st Street Bridge/Route 28 interchange reopens - WPXI Channel 11
31st Street Bridge Now Accessible From Route 28 - KDKA TV-2
31st Street Bridge opens at Route 28 interchange - WTAE Channel 4
(all have videos)

And it's good that they got it open before the Winter Storm today (11/26/13).

[Mr_Northside]

It's pretty useful.  Part of my current job requires pretty much daily trips to the Fed Ex in the Strip District (on 32nd St), and it's been a much nicer trip the last 2 days. 

Hopefully they keep tweaking the signals (or their sensors) to make it a little more efficient.

[rickmastfan67]

Mr_Northside, might want to look for another place to host the images.  Seems Verizon is throwing a fit and not allowing them to load most of the time.

I would recommend maybe using Photobucket in the future.

[DeaconG]

Don't see the pics either.

[Mr_Northside]

OK.  I "photobucketed" this last round of pics.  I just wiped out the old post, and will repost with hopefully working photos.
I'm hoping Verizon gets it's crap together, but if not I might go back and move older pics over and modify old posts at some point in the future.


From a rather chilly bike ride today:

The unveiled sign for the new Exit 2 for NB PA-28



A LGS on the NB off-ramp.  Rialto St. is currently closed for the winter (some signs referencing it are covered up, some aren't)



This sign, between the Millvale & 40th St. Br. ramps heading SB,  was put up quite some time ago with the 40th St. Bridge signs during that phase of the project, and was covered up until a few days ago. 
I see what they're going for with number alignment, but I kind of wish they would have just put the 2 under the 3/4.



The sign for Exit 2 heading southbound.



View from the bridge over PA-28, looking north toward Millvale.  Man, it gets dark out early these days.



View from the sidewalk over PA-28 looking at the highway heading towards downtown.  There is fencing for the sidewalk where it goes over the railroad tracks, but none for where it's over Rt. 28.  The "Wrong Way" sign is on the same post as the LGS a couple of pics up.



I had been kind of wondering what was up with the gap between the jersey barrier & retaining wall on the SB side of 28 for a while now, not sure if it was for drainage or whatever....

It appears to be a paved sidewalk.  I think it stems from when there were plans to keep St. Nicholas Church.  We'll see if it continues south when they do this last phase of construction soon (or even if it won't be permanently blocked off from Joe Pedestrian), but as of now there is no indication of a permanent barrier to keep people from using it.



At the end of the NB off-ramp.  The overhead lane sign for Rialto-bound traffic is covered up, and that lane marked off.



Over PA-28, facing the Strip District...



Looking towards the interchange from the 31st St. Bridge....
I can't help but think the signalization of the interchange couldn't have been a little smarter to accommodate at least "partial" RTOR situations....

[ARMOURERERIC]

It looks like it will be a walkway:

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/ruth-ann-dailey/2013/12/09/In-Route-28-redo-a-grand-entrance-of-art/stories/201312090074#ixzz2mzM3DOqJ