Progress being made through Jefferson Hills on Mon-Fayette Expressway
Jefferson Boulevard and Route 51 has a new traffic pattern implemented until the northbound off ramp is reopened.
Progress is moving forward with construction of the Mon/ Fayette Expressway, according to construction engineers.
According to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s update on Labor Day, Coal Valley Road, as part of Section 53A1 construction, was closed for up to two months for road and slope reconstruction.
The road is now open, according to Pennsylvania Turnpike consultant Craig White, and work will still be ongoing in the area. It is scheduled to close again for a short duration later this year for slope work and bridge form removal.
This work is included in Section 53A1, which begins where the current expressway ends at PA Route 51 in Jefferson Hills Borough and stretches approximately three miles north of Coal Valley Road, has undergone work since March 2023.
Senior Engineer Project Manager for the PA Turnpike Commission John Dzurko said the goal is to get to the Monongahela River.
“It takes both sections to be substantially near complete to get to our first new interchange, and our first interchange is going to be with Camp Hollow Road, which is just south of the Allegheny County Airport. These two sections are set to be open to traffic in fall of 2026.”
The nearly $214 million contract requires Trumbull Corp. to excavate more than four million cubic yards of earth and build six bridges. The remaining construction sections will go through the bidding process and begin construction as bids are awarded.
The same as last month, Route 43 southbound drivers will be using the southbound ramp and northbound drivers will cross over to the south- bound side to Jefferson Boulevard.
Jefferson Boulevard and Route 51 has a new traffic pattern implemented until the northbound off ramp is reopened. Brickyard Road will still have traffic restrictions during working hours, and the bridge over Jefferson Boulevard’s work is mostly completed as the bridge is currently being used for construction access.
There are several new bridges being worked on in this section, according to Dzurko, mostly over Route 51 near where it terminates in Jefferson Hills.
The bridge over Peters Creek has a northbound part of the bridge blocked by a barrier. The southbound bridge is mostly complete and maintenance repairs will continue on the existing northbound ramp bridge while closed.
The bridge over Route 43’s work is mostly finished and open to traffic. Construction traffic will happen underneath the bridge.
The toll facility construction continues as interior finish work and electric installation is currently happening.
The standard work shift is 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and Friday/Saturday shifts are used when needed. No work was done during the Labor Day holiday.
Section 53A1 is expected to be finished in the fall of 2026, but is ahead of schedule, according to Dzurko, with no problems with construction.
“These are massive construction projects in scale and magnitude, so of course you run into issues, and that’s kind of the nature of construction,” he said. “But there hasn’t been anything to put us behind schedule.”
Section 53A2
New England Road has been closed since July 14 for crane placement and steel erection for approximately two months, according to the release. The detours include taking SR 837 to SR 885.
On Upper Camp Hollow, northbound and southbound traffic are in the new roadway alignment.
Access to Lebanon School Road is open, and Lebanon Manor and Beverly Drive access is via the new Beverly Drive connection ahead of the north roundabout.
With the new alignment, work will be on sides of the new roadway and driveway connections as they excavate the old Camp Hollow Road.
Lower Camp Hollow Road is open to traffic. Construction traffic will continue crossing utilizing flaggers while bridge construction is underway and this section of Lower Camp Hollow Road will be closed in the future to continue the rock slope work, and not during when New England Road is closed.
Blasting North of Camp Hollow Road has completed. Blasting will occur in the area of the Old Camp Hollow Road when rock is encountered.
For all blasts, five minutes prior to blasting the contractor will give three horn alerts of 15 seconds each. One minute prior to blasting, threehorn alerts of 10 seconds will be sounded. 30 seconds prior to blasting, a series of short horn alerts will be sounded up to the time of detonation.
After the blast, the area will be checked, and a horn will be sounded for 15 seconds to indicate that “all is clear”.
Additional air horns have been added to help notifications.
“Camp Hollow Road is being built in stage construction,” Dzurko said. “We actually don’t detour Camp Hollow Road. We are aware of the PennDOT projects that are going on in the area too.”
There is also bridge work, soundwall and ramp work being done in these areas. The standard work shift in this section is 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Thursday. Friday and Saturday shifts will be used as needed.
Section 53A2 is to be finished in the summer of 2027, according to the PA Turnpike’s website. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission recommended everyone to follow traffic signs in these areas.
“Section 53A2 is right on the contractor’s plan for completion date, so they both are on time,” Dzurko said. “They are both on budget. It’s going really smoothly.”
The future
There are several sections that are still in the early stages of development, according to Dzurko. There are seven total sections.
The next section, Section 53B1A around Dravosburg, will get to another interchange. It will go from the new Camp Hollow Road interchange to Pittsburgh-Mckeesport Boulevard.
“This project is in final design now and is planned to bid sometime in December of this year, so construction will start in early spring,” Dzurko said. “There is no tolling point between Pittsburgh- McKeesport and Camp Hollow, so that would be a free movement.”
He added that it will most likely take two and a half construction seasons to build, and while they do not know a completion date, it would be in 2029.
There are several sections proposed in the early stages of construction that are in the West Mifflin area, which are labeled Section 53B2, Section 53C1 and Section 53C2, which is near West Mifflin High School.
Dzurko said that section will include improvements to Commonwealth Avenue and Hoffman Boulevard.
The last section, Section 53C3 near Duquesne, is the replacement for the 837 bridge, according to Dzurko.
There’s a union railroad transfer station and a bunch of railroad tracks that the current bridge goes over top, he said, so the Turnpike would build a new bridge adjacent to it.
“But all four of these (new) sections are in various stages of design,” Dzurko added. “Really funding is being evaluated so the projects are advancing as the funding is being available. We currently do not have a timeline for them right now.”
The reason why the highway is going where it is, according to Dzurko, is because there wasn’t a real good way to get around the area.
The projects will not stop over the winter, and things may slow down, but they are still working, and will shut down construction, at most, for a week or two.
“We understand the impacts, however, for the most part, I don’t think we have kept the roads closed longer than allowed to,” Dzurko said. “We have highway occupancy permits either with PennDOT or Allegheny County, and we have closed (roads) and opened them as we planned to. We keep things closed if we absolutely need to keep them closed.”
More updates on the construction can be found on the PA Turnpike Commission’s website every week at www. paturnpike.com. The Turnpike’s office is also on Coal Valley Road.
