Drivers from across the county rejoiced as the opening of two new lanes on Route 28 near the Highland Park Bridge brought shorter commute times and reduced stress for many.
The opening comes after a yearslong $47 million project at the interchange of the bridge and highway that ended in a bottleneck that reduced traffic to one lane for drivers headed both north and south.
PennDOT announced the opening of a second southbound travel lane Wednesday after a second northbound lane was opened last week.
For many, the announcements came as a relief to drivers sick of getting caught in a near standstill in the area of the bridge on their way to work.
Kim Brezinski, a 54-year-old legal assistant from Sarver, said the additional lanes cut her travel time to and from her job in Downtown Pittsburgh by up to 15 minutes each way.
“It definitely helps alleviate the congestion that’s been around that area,” Ms. Brezinski said. “There’s no sitting in traffic, let’s put it that way.”
Chey Sanders, a 20-year-old residential house cleaner from Apollo, said her job requires her to travel from Freeport to Etna every weekday and she arrived considerably early to work Thursday due to the absence of construction.
“I thought everyone was lying,” Ms. Sanders said she thought when she learned the lane reopened. “I also was excited to see how it was going to flow. It's been a major issue because my commute alone is supposed to be 45 minutes and it was over an hour with the traffic.”
Jon Fanto, a laundry aide from Blawnox, said he also was able to spend less time behind the wheel on his drive to work in North Hills.
“It’s saved me lots of time getting there,” Mr. Fanto, 26, said. “Without the bottleneck near the bridge [it] has been really wonderful.”
And it was not only those traveling up or down Route 28 to work who heralded the lane openings as a long-awaited relief.
Mark McMillen, of Saxonburg, said the new lanes would make the trip to visit his daughter in Highland Park much easier.
“[The construction] added, at its worse, sometimes 10 to 20 minutes on the drive to her house from where we live so we are really anticipating a much smoother ride there,” said Mr. McMillen, a 63-year-old chemist. “I’m actually looking forward to seeing what it’s like. I was very pleased that it was open, just in time for Christmas, too.”
The project by PennDot not only brought additional lanes to alleviate congestion near Highland Park Bridge, but also included a sound barrier in some sections that was designed by local artist Brian Peters.
Mr. Peters’ design on the sound barrier walls, which resembles two sets of intersecting wave ripples, will look differently throughout the day as it reacts to the sun as it moves across the sky.
“As people are driving by, hopefully, every day it's slightly different,” Mr. Peters, 44, who said his design was inspired by the Allegheny River, said.
Mr. Peters, who works out of his design studio on East Carnegie, added that he was grateful to be included in the project.
“As an artist, I don’t think there’s a bigger canvas that you could imagine or work on,” he said. “It’s a really unique opportunity for me as an artist to design something that thousands of people are going to see every day that’s going to be there for a lasting time.”
But the sound barrier does not extend across the entire reconstruction project. It is implemented in O’Hara facing to the east and Aspinwall to the west, Mr. Peters said, although it was not included in Sharpsburg, which came as a disappointment to some in the area.
“I’m very excited about all of the lanes being open on Route 28. This was long in the making and required significant investment at the state level,” Sharpsburg Borough Council Member Sarah Ishman said. “Maintaining accessibility to our riverfront communities is critical to our success.”
“That being said, the Sharpsburg portion of the 28 improvements did not include a sound barrier wall, but these are present all along the wealthier communities of O’Hara and Aspinwall,” Ms. Ishman continued. “There is likely to be an exponential increase in road noise in our community now that all of the lanes are opening up and I implore officials at all levels to continue to monitor noise pollution and not let our community get the short end of the stick.”
First Published: December 21, 2023, 9:40 p.m.
Updated: December 22, 2023, 7:05 p.m.
