​

Pittsburgh, PA – The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and the City of Pittsburgh are advising motorists that starting Thursday, August 11, superloads carrying beams for the Fern Hollow Bridge will be transported from Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania to South Braddock Avenue in Pittsburgh.

The first transport is expected to leave PennStress, a division of the MacInnis Group, LLC at 7 a.m. on Thursday morning and arrive by 10 a.m. with the first two of the remaining seven beams for the reconstruction of the Fern Hollow Bridge. Recently, PennStress successfully delivered 14 beams to the Forbes Avenue side of the bridge. The superload will use multiple state routes through Blair, Cambria, Indiana, and Westmoreland counties before reaching Allegheny County on its 90-mile journey to the eastern side of the bridge located on Forbes Avenue at South Braddock Avenue.

To reach the bridge site, the superload will back-up the ramp that carries traffic from South Braddock Avenue to the inbound (westbound) I-376 (Parkway East) at the Edgewood/Swissvale (Exit 77) interchange and will continue on northbound South Braddock Avenue. To allow the delivery to occur, the following ramps and roadways will close to traffic during the deliveries:

• The ramps from West Swissvale Avenue and northbound South Braddock Avenue to the inbound Parkway East

• The ramp from southbound Braddock Avenue to the inbound Parkway East

• South Braddock Avenue in both directions between the I-376 interchange and Forbes Avenue

• Side streets along the delivery route that intersect with South Braddock Avenue

Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg, Edgewood and Swissvale police will escort the vehicles on South Braddock Avenue and conduct the roadway closures. The closures are expected to take less than 30 minutes each day. Police will release ramp and side road traffic as the superload passes each intersection.

Two beams a day are expected to be delivered Thursday and Friday, August 11-12 and Monday, August 15. One beam will be delivered on Tuesday, August 16.

The prestressed concrete beams are approximately 150 feet long, eight feet high, and four feet wide. Each beam weighs approximately 100 tons. A total of 21 beams will be delivered with 14 already transported to the Squirrel Hill side of the project and the remaining beams delivered to the Regent Square side via South Braddock Avenue.

Motorists are encouraged to “Know Before They Go” by checking conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts.

Follow PennDOT on Twitter and like the department on Facebook and Instagram.

MEDIA CONTACT: Steve Cowan, 412-429-5010

# # #