Squirrel Hill Tunnel Project (Pittsburgh, Monroe: purchase, construction, to live)

[Sealtite]

Is the project still "on" for the raising of the roofs in the Squirrel Hill tunnels next year? I'm gonna be spending most of the warm months in Pittsburgh for the foreseeable future, and was wondering about this. I heard a blip about it on KDKA last year, but haven't heard much since. If it's indeed going to happen, I'll have to make it a point to avoid the parkway east all together.

[bradjl2009]

Yep it's starting next year beginning in March.

[safak]

i have not even heard about this. but i do make a point to avoid the parkway east anyway.

they are making the ceiling higher? i am sure i just don't see something obvious but wouldn't it make more sense to make them..wider?

[Impala26]

Originally Posted by safak

i have not even heard about this. but i do make a point to avoid the parkway east anyway.

they are making the ceiling higher? i am sure i just don't see something obvious but wouldn't it make more sense to make them..wider?

Logistics my friend. PennDOT has free reign to develop vertically, but they would need to purchase additional land/rights/etc. in order to build the tunnels out wider. From a construction standpoint I believe that's more difficult to do as well, requiring almost entirely new bores.

[gg]

Oh my, I would hate to live over that way. Traffic over there is horrible as it is let alone a project like this one that won't help the situation.

PennDOT plans revamp of Squirrel Hill Tunnel in Pennsylvania - World Construction Network

[youngabe]

Lots of details in this thread:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/pitts...l-project.html

[BrianTH]

The current ceiling is a drop ceiling, so it is relatively cheap to remove it and improve the clearance (and maybe get less "tunnel monster" slowdowns as well).

Actually increasing the size of the tunnels themselves would be at least an order of magnitude more expensive.

[Impala26]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The current ceiling is a drop ceiling, so it is relatively cheap to remove it and improve the clearance (and maybe get less "tunnel monster" hslowdowns as well).

Actually increasing the size of the tunnels themselves would be at least an order of magnitude more expensive.

Hey Brian, do you know anywhere one could go to figure out a cost comparison between widening all of the Parkway East to three lanes versus extending the East Busway to Monroeville?

[ML North]

Originally Posted by Impala26

Hey Brian, do you know anywhere one could go to figure out a cost comparison between widening all of the Parkway East to three lanes versus extending the East Busway to Monroeville?

Honestly, I don't think you'd need to do much of a comparison. And if you did, I think it would look something like this:

Parkway reconfiguration $ >> Busway Extension $

Mainly because a busway extension would have significantly fewer lane-miles to build and would not required a tunnel modification.

You could try a "bottoms up" though. Break each project into components, and find the cost of a comparable project for each of those components and sum them up.

[Sealtite]

I can't even begin to imagine the cluster***** that traffic is gonna be on the Parkway east. My....God.