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Wednesday, July 31, 2002

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The outbound Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel, closed for repairs since spring, will reopen unofficially tonight, a month earlier than planned.

	Related article: Timetable for reopening the Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel

Workers will start pulling the barriers away at about 6:10 p.m., 12 hours before the previously announced official opening at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Four hours later, however, the tunnel will be closed again for overnight work.

Those overnight closures as well as lane restrictions on the bridge will continue for the next week as the last parts of the project are finished up.

The motorist who's the first tonight to go up the Liberty Avenue on-ramp from Downtown will not be first to drive on the finished product, however.

Some time this afternoon, Ken Andreatta plans to pull rank and inaugurate the smooth, new concrete lanes of the Fort Pitt Bridge, and he plans to stop his sport utility vehicle in the middle of the bridge for a minute, too.

Andreatta, of Baden, Beaver County, is the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation's project engineer. He has been overseeing the work on the landmark bridge and tunnel since work got under way in 1993, and he is to be back again next year, when the inbound bridge and tunnel are closed.

"I just want to take a minute to reflect on what everybody has accomplished," Andreatta said. "I'm proud to be working with such a talented, dedicated group of people."

Whether it's 6:10 p.m. today or 6 a.m. tomorrow, PennDOT and contractors on the two-year, $84.2 million project will still be finishing one month early.

With the early reopening of both tunnel lanes and all four lanes on the outbound, lower deck of the bridge, West Mifflin-based Trumbull Corp. stands to pick up a $1.5 million bonus.

Not everything will open right away. The Stanwix Street entrance ramp will remain closed through November because of the separate Fort Pitt Boulevard project.

For the same reason, the Parkway East (Interstate 376 West) ramp leading onto the Fort Pitt Bridge will be limited to one lane rather than two, promising more traffic jams for motorists who don't opt to continue detouring for a while longer.

In addition, the Parkway East (I-376 inbound) ramp to the Fort Duquesne Bridge will be closed from 6 p.m. today until Aug. 8, the start of the Three Rivers Regatta and date of a Steelers preseason game at Heinz Field. The detour to the North Side will be Fort Pitt Bridge to West Carson Street to West End Bridge.

"The important point is the bridge and tunnel will be open for most of the people, most of the time," Andreatta said.

The post-construction transition began last night when PennDOT began returning normal traffic patterns on Route 51, as well as on the Route 51 on-ramp to the Parkway West between the West End Circle and Liberty Tunnels. The on-ramp, which has been two lanes since the Fort Pitt project started, was to have been back to a single lane by 6 a.m. today.

PennDOT has announced the latest restrictions for the outbound Fort Pitt Bridge and Tunnel, in effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday until Aug. 8.

Outbound tunnel closed.

Only one lane of the Fort Pitt Bridge open from Fort Duquesne Bridge to the West Carson Street exit ramp.

Liberty Avenue on-ramp from Downtown closed.

Fort Duquesne Boulevard on-ramp from Downtown closed.

Parkway East inbound (I-376 West) closed from Grant Street to the Fort Pitt Bridge.