Feb 14, 2014 2 min read

It wouldn’t exactly be correct to say that construction on the long-in-limbo Southern Beltway will be getting under way Monday, but work will get going on a precursor to the project, which is still a few years away from getting started.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission said controlled blasting will start on a rock embankment, allowing construction to begin on twin bridges that will eventually carry the Findlay Connector on Interstate 576 at its southern terminus over U.S. Route 22. The bridges will eventually connect Route 22 to the Southern Beltway Project, which will cut through the northeastern part of Washington County and connect to Interstate 79 in the area around Southpointe.

The bridges could perhaps best be characterized as “a leftover remnant of the original Findlay Connector,” said Tom Fox, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. “That bridge has to be built in order to complete the roadway.”

Because of the work, traffic could slowed or stopped on Route 22, the Turnpike and Old Steubenville Pike in Robinson Township from Monday through April 18. Depending on conditions, blasting will happen from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and be “minimal,” Fox said, and not of the loud, ground-shaking variety.

Maintenance personnel and state police will stop motorists on Route 22, with eastbound traffic being stopped at the exit for Bavington. Westbound traffic will be stopped at the state Route 980 interchange with Potato Garden Road. Traffic on the turnpike will be stopped at the Exit 6 toll plaza, and Old Steubenville Pike traffic will be stopped around Robinson Church Road.

If traffic is slowed or stopped, it will probably last about 15 minutes.

The Southern Beltway is still being designed, Fox said, and property is being acquired for the project. Construction is still at least two to three years off, he added.