Thursday morning's reopening of the ramp linking Route 8 to southbound Route 28 can't come soon enough for Etna police Chief Bob Ober.

"[PennDOT] told us they won't need us for traffic duty after 7 p.m. Wednesday," Ober said yesterday.

Since April, his officers have been directing cars and trucks through the borough while crews from Trumbull Corp. rebuilt the ramp.

The $27 million project is the third phase of an eight-year reconstruction of the Route 28-Route 8 interchange. An estimated 60,000 vehicles use the corridor on an average weekday.

Drivers traveling south on Route 28 on Wednesday night will face one last detour. Starting at 10 p.m., vehicles will be directed through Etna while crews remove barrels and concrete barriers to allow traffic to start using the widened roadway and reconstructed exit ramp.

That work should be completed by 6 a.m. Thursday, just in time for the morning rush hour.

The overnight detour will follow Route 8 northbound to the first light on Kittanning Street, where drivers are to turn left. At the next intersection motorists should turn left again onto Butler Street, which will take them back to Route 28 south.

Ober doesn't foresee any problems.

"There won't be that much traffic late at night," he said.

The ramp and roadway reopening schedule may change, depending on weather next week.

The Route 8 ramp opening doesn't signal the end of the project.

The Sharpsburg-Route 28 ramp won't be completed until after Christmas, according to Brad Miller, project engineer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Single-lane restrictions will continue in both directions until final work is finished sometime after the holiday.

Most of the drivers trying to get from the North Hills into Pittsburgh have been patient during the eight months of construction, Ober said.

"We've even gotten compliments from people who said traffic ran smoother with police directing than just with the lights."