Amid the activity of Pittsburgh Regional Transit buses leaving and departing Swissvale’s Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway station, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and several federal and state elected officials gathered Friday to celebrate a $142.3 million federal grant to support infrastructure improvements in the region.
The grant is part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021. It helps fund the Eastern Pittsburgh Multimodal Corridor Project, which focuses on improvements to Parkway East and the East Busway.
Of the $142.3 million, $48.5 million will be spent on an active traffic management system —- which includes dynamic message boards, variable speed limit systems, wrong way vehicle detection and queue warning — on the Parkway East from Monroeville to Downtown. The improvements aim to reduce the number of crashes on the busy highway.
There also will be $39 million for flood mitigation for the westbound “Bathtub,” an area of more than 600 yards along the Parkway that has been flood prone for decades. Other funds will rehabilitate ten bridges in the region, improve parts of South Braddock Avenue and Ardmore Boulevard/U.S. 30, and fill in missing sections of sidewalks along Business U.S. 22 in Wilkins and Monroeville. It also will build hard shoulders along the East Busway and a ramp from the Parkway East to the busway, near Edgewood Towne Center at the Edgewood-Swissvale border.
Mr. Buttigieg said Friday that typically when he thinks of bathtubs, it’s in a positive light — he’s in charge of bathtime for his two kids, aged two-and-a-half years old. But he understands Pittsburgh’s “bathtub” is seen differently.
“I’m surprised to find myself in anything but a pro bathtub position ... but this is not that kind of bathtub,” he said.
County Executive Sara Innamorato, U.S. Representatives Chris Deluzio and Summer Lee, and U.S. Senator John Fetterman — said that the project’s benefits included creating over 2,500 jobs, adding $254.9 million to the local economy, addressing climate change challenges and improving the transportation network in the region.
Its impacts will help people in their day-to-day lives, they said.
“The funding isn’t just about roads and buses. This is about people, this is about jobs, and this is about the quality of life in this region,” Ms. Lee said.
Mr. Buttigieg told reporters at a press conference that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will be in charge of finalizing plans for projects that are funded by the grant. The U.S. Department of Transportation will be working with state transportation officials on completing agreements for how the federal money specifically will be used for those projects, he said.
Mike Carroll, the state’s Secretary of Transportation, told the Post-Gazette after the press conference that there is roughly $100 million in other state and federal funds to help complete the Eastern Pittsburgh Multimodal Corridor Project. He said that parts of the project should hopefully start by late 2025.
More broadly, he said he hopes that federal leaders can keep infrastructure front-and-center in the coming years. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was the first major transportation bill passed by Congress in decades and funds infrastructure projects for five years.
“The [Bipartisan Infrastructure Law] was a five-year investment — my hope would be that we renew it when this one expires,” Mr. Carroll said.
For now, though, the federal funds are invaluable for major infrastructure needs in the area, he said.
“This region does not need to be reminded of the challenges on [Interstate] 376, and advanced use of the Busway really makes a difference for everybody,” Mr. Carroll said.
Steve Bohnel: sbohnel@post-gazette.com
First Published: January 26, 2024, 9:18 p.m.
Updated: January 27, 2024, 11:34 p.m.
