PennDOT releases plan for Highland Park interchange

2-year, $55M project to improve Rt. 28 safety

Imagine free-flowing traffic in two lanes in each direction on Route 28 past the Highland Park Bridge and the elimination of the whiteknuckle merges for motorists getting on and off the bridge.

That’s what will happen under an estimated two-year, $55 million project scheduled to begin later this year at the Route 28-Highland Park Bridge interchange. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation posted final plans for the project on its website for comments Thursday after it had to cancel a public meeting due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The website presentation includes a slideshow as well as a video that compares existing conditions with the new configuration.

PennDOT District Executive Cheryl Moon-Sirianni said the project has very few changes from the department’s initial presentation in December 2017. The main differences are that designs for sound barriers in Aspinwall and O’Hara have been chosen, and the Virginia Avenue Extension ramp onto southbound Route 28 will remain open, but traffic won’t be allowed to merge across lanes to cross the bridge from there.

Right now, traffic on the highway backs up around the bridge because there is only one through-lane in each direction and one exit lane to the bridge. The project calls for adding a through-lane in each direction to prevent those backups and maintaining an exit lane to the bridge.

Motorists traveling north will continue to have a right exit lane to the bridge, but when they exit, they won’t have to merge left to cross the bridge because they will have their own lane. The ramp that previously allowed traffic from Sharpsburg to merge into that lane will be eliminated, and drivers will have to turn left at a new traffic light onto Freeport Road to access the bridge.

Traffic heading north on Route 28 from the bridge will continue to have its own, third lane until Delafield Avenue, where motorists will have to exit or merge left.

Motorists heading south also will have two free-flowing lanes. Designers had considered closing the ramp from Virginia Avenue Extension that merges from the right because residents had complained about some drivers causing traffic jams when they immediately want to cross traffic to the exit lane for the bridge.

Instead the ramp will remain open, but there will be a double white line to prevent lane changes and signs telling drivers to stay in their lane.

Drivers crossing the bridge from Highland Park also will face a major change. A traffic light will be installed where Freeport Road meets with bridge traffic and creates a dangerous merge point. Although the light will stop traffic, Ms. MoonSirianni said engineers for Michael Baker International believe it will improve safety without creating a major delay.

Traffic heading southbound on

Route 28 from the bridge will have an extending acceleration lane before merging instead of the individual lane they have now.

Residents on the O’Hara side of the project chose desert tan-colored stone for its sound barriers, while Aspinwall residents chose neutral gray.

Right now, the project is scheduled to go out for bids in June with work set to begin in the fall, but that could change because all road construction projects have been halted because of the virus emergency. That also has delayed the start of a $13 million to $15 million pavement project on Route 28 from Millvale to the interchange project, which has to be finished before the interchange work can begin.

In an option that isn’t often used, PennDOT will allow contractors to bid the interchange project either using concrete or asphalt to pave the surface. The low bid will be awarded the project.