Coal Valley Road closes for construction project
Road and slope reconstruction in the area could take up to two months for crews to complete.
Coal Valley Road is closed again as of Monday as work is moving forward on the Mon/Fayette Expressway, according to construction engineers.
According to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s Oct. 6 update, Coal Valley Road, as part of Section 53A1 construction, was closed for up to two months for road and slope reconstruction.
They will continue slope restoration work for a three- to four-week duration, according to Pennsylvania Turnpike consultant Craig White, and work will still be ongoing in the area. This is the last scheduled Coal Valley Road closure.
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. It 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,” Dzurko said last month. “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.
Same as last month, Route 43 southbound drivers will be using the southbound ramp and northbound drivers will cross over to the southbound side to Jefferson Boulevard.
Jefferson Boulevard and Route 51 have 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 majority of the work is completed on multiple bridges, including bridge 400/401 over Brickyard Rd/SR 51/Peters Creek, the bridge over Jefferson Boulevard and the bridge over 43. The bridge over Coal Valley has a concrete barrier slipforming that is ongoing.
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.
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. The estimated completion date is still late 2026.
“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, and it is now open to traffic as construction will continue in the area.
Lower Camp Hollow will be closed Friday to continue the rock slope work and bridge construction at the New England Road interaction. The road will be closed for two months.
The new alignment and main roadway work are completed at Up- per Camp Hollow Road, with work on the Lebanon Church Road intersection work to start next year.
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.
Blasting will occur in the area of the Old Camp Hollow Road when rock is encountered near roundabouts.
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. Thirty 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 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays. 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 recommends 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.”
