Murtland work starts this week
Drivers who travel Route 19 (Washington Road) and Interstate 70 near the Murtland Avenue interchange in South Strabane Township are being reminded of changes in traffic patterns and delays starting tonight.
Crews will begin preparations to implement the diverging diamond interchange starting about 6 p.m. tonight. They will continue through Tuesday morning to eradicate and then repaint the lines on both lanes of Route 19. The work will be done in the northbound lanes between Oak Spring Road to the first traffic signal and on the southbound side from Trinity Point/Strabane Square up to the traffic signal.
Starting at 4 p.m. Tuesday, crews will start setting up channelizers between the two signals and start flip-flopping traffic into the diverging diamond interchange, Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer overseeing the project for the state Department of Transportation explained last week.
The new traffic signals will be turned on and traffic will be restricted to a single lane in each direction during the switch.
By Wednesday morning, traffic between the two signals as it moves under the highway will be traveling in the opposite lanes in the diverging diamond pattern. Traffic will be required to cross over and switch lanes with the signals directing the flow to allow drivers to either pass through or get on the highway in either direction.
The diverging diamond is an element of the $51.2 million project to redo the Murtland Avenue interchange on I-70. Work on the project, being done by Golden Triangle Construction of Imperial, started in November 2014.
Once the traffic is switched, crews will build mountable curbs and medians as permanent barriers in the diverging diamond. Mountable curbs also will be built at the ramps to the highway. That work is expected to continue through the end of October.
Work to rebuild the westbound lanes on the highway is continuing.