Reopening of Coal Valley Road set for today

Turnpike Commission officials offered updates on the Expressway project.

Coal Valley Road will reopen today as construction work moves forward with the Mon/Fayette Expressway.

According to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s Dec. 1 update, Coal Valley Road, as part of Section 53A1 construction, was closed for up to two months for road and slope reconstruction, followed by continued slope restoration work for three to four weeks.

The road will not close again, according to Pennsylvania Turnpike consultant Craig White.

This work is included in Section 53A1, which begins where the current expressway ends at PA Route 51 in Jefferson Hills and stretches approximately three miles north of Coal Valley Road. The area has undergone work since March of 2023.

John Dzurko, senior engineer project manager for the Turnpike Commission, 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 will begin construction as bids are awarded.

Continuing from previous updates, Route 43 southbound drivers will be using the southbound ramp and northbound drivers will cross over to the southbound side to Jefferson Boulevard. Clairton Road (SR 885) will continue with construction and deliveries in that area.

Jefferson Boulevard has a temporary traffic configuration until Route 43’s off ramp is reopened. Payne Hill Road’s entrance is open.

Travelers of Jefferson Boulevard and Route 51 are advised to follow traffic signs, arrows, merging areas, stop and yield signs.

Pitt McKeesport Boulevard has utility work going on in the area for future projects, and the majority of work going on for the bridges in the area is completed with the bridge over Coal Valley Road still continuing.

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. Mondays to Thursdays, with Friday and Saturday shifts added when needed.

Section 53A1 is expected to be finished in the fall of 2026, but is ahead of schedule, according to Dzurko. 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 will close Tuesday until just before Christmas.

Lower Camp Hollow is open, and the bridge steel has been erected over the roadway. The road was closed for two months.

The new alignment and main roadway work are completed at Upper Camp Hollow Road, with work on the Lebanon Church Road intersection work to start next year. Upper Camp Hollow’s new alignment work has been completed.

On Upper Camp Hollow, northbound and southbound traffic are in the new roadway alignment. Access to Lebanon Manor and Beverly Drive is now open via the new Beverly Drive connection ahead of the north roundabout.

This entrance is for local residential traffic only, according to the PA Turnpike. Trucks are prohibited except for local deliveries.

Excavating for a new roadway under Camp Hollow Bridge is underway, and Lebanon Church Road intersection work will follow next year.

Old Camp Hollow roadway is open for local traffic, and final paving will be next year. Occasional small hole blasting will occur in the area of the Old Camp Hollow Road near roundabouts when rock is encountered.

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,