Forbes Avenue to get overhaul

Work starts March 8, continues to October

Significant work is set to begin next week on traffic-disrupting upgrades to Forbes Avenue from Uptown to Squirrel Hill.

The Forbes Avenue Betterment project, in the works for about eight years, will see the thoroughfare repaved, repainted and reconfigured to add bike lanes.

The work is scheduled to start Thursday and continue into October. Crews will be out on certain weekdays, weeknights and weekends, resulting in traffic restrictions from lane closures to detours.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is heading up the project with funds coming from city, state and federal sources, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Gulisek Construction and Lindy Paving are the contractors selected for the work.

The project extends through 18 intersections from Brady Street near the Birmingham Bridge to Margaret Morrison Street near CMU. It includes improvements to traffic signals, making curb ramps comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and milling and paving. PennDOT officials said there would be no major changes to parking on Forbes once the work is done.

Smart traffic signals will be added on the section of Forbes that cuts through CMU’s campus, from Schenley Drive to Margaret Morrison.

Bike lanes will be added from Bigelow Boulevard/ Schenley Drive to Margaret Morrison. The lanes will be 5 feet wide and have a 2- to 4-foot buffer from travel lanes where space allows. There also will be new bicycle-safe inlet grates and updated signs and signals for bikes.

The four existing vehicle lanes on Forbes from South Craig Street to Margaret Morrison will be decreased to two with one in each direction, a center turn lane, and bike lanes in each direction.

John Myler, PennDOT assistant construction engineer, said that while the number of lanes will be reduced, the leftturn lanes should improve traffic movement through the area.

With the way the traffic pattern is currently set up, “if somebody wants to make [a] left and I want to go straight through, I’m stuck waiting behind them,” Mr. Myler said. “They can’t turn because there’s oncoming traffic, so it’s already a bottleneck.