McDonald police planning Quicksilver crackdown
Quicksilver Road is open for local traffic only as far as the entrance to Quicksilver Golf Club in Robinson Township. A few hundred yards farther north, construction crews are working on the Southern Beltway expansion.
The Robinson Highway entrance to Quicksilver Road is closed as construction crews work on the expansion of the Southern Beltway. Signs direct drivers toward a lengthy detour on Noblestown Road.
Drivers considering driving around “Road Closed” signs on Quicksilver Road in Robinson Township to avoid taking a detour might want to think twice.
McDonald police are planning traffic details to monitor the area after getting complaints about drivers sneaking through the construction zone.
A portion of Quicksilver Road closed last month to allow contractors to rebuild a quarter-mile stretch of the road as part of the expansion of the Southern Beltway from Route 22. Drivers are being rerouted along a 12-mile detour that uses Midway-Candor Road, Candor Road and Beech Hollow Road.
“People are driving through, around the signs instead of taking the detour,” said police Sgt. Dennis Ahlborn. “Most of the drivers seem to be doing it early in the morning, probably on their way to work and before the contractors start the work for the day.”
Ahlborn said police will be running special details looking for scofflaws.
“We charged one driver on Friday,” Ahlborn said of a citation given to a Midway man for failure to obey a traffic control device warning of hazardous conditions. “Another driver started to go around the signs until spotting the police car sitting there.”
Ahlborn said it is a floating fine. A driver who goes around the sign could be fined as much as $250, while a driver who goes around the sign and creates an issue that requires emergency response by the fire department or a tow truck could be fined as much as $500, the sergeant explained.
“We will be sitting out there, watching,” Ahlborn warned.
The road is expected to reopen in May. The project by the state Turnpike Commission also includes moving Beech Hollow Road so that it aligns with Donaldson Road at the intersection with Route 980.
The contractor for the $90 million project to expand the beltway between the Pittsburgh International Airport area to Interstate 79 is Independence Excavating of Ohio.