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Penn Avenue project funding approved (outbound shut down)

Penn Ave outbound to be shut down for 2 years from Main/Penn to Aiken/Penn (Upper Larryville, Bloomfield, Garfield, Friendship). Despite the soul crushing burden that motorists will be subjected to, I'm hopeful that this will bring general ped/cycling improvements in that corridor. Does anyone know what the plan is?
quizbot
2013-05-09 01:20:20
Interesting they're saying Main to Aiken--phase I was originally only supposed to be Mathilda to Evaline this time. http://bloomfield-garfield.org/penn-ave/penn-ave-reconstruction/ LR Kimball are the engineers: http://www.lrkimball.com/penn-avenue.aspx From the latest BGC Bulletin (PDF):
The Phase 1 team will hold a final community meeting on Thursday, June 27, at the St. Maria Goretti Activity Center at 114 N. Atlantic Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m. The chosen contractor, the inspection firm, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, DPW and Kimball will all have representatives on hand to answer questions about the plans, present the schedule for construction and outline traffic patterns and detours
epanastrophe
2013-05-09 07:05:49
Yeah I was confused about this too. Seems like they are planning to divert traffic far before the actual area of construction. I imagine they'll still need to let local traffic in, otherwise you're cutting off access to a very large number of businesses.
willb
2013-05-09 08:11:23
WillB, traffic inbound will still be open--it's only outbound that's detoured. Now that I think about it, I remember the Main-Liberty-Baum(-Negley) detour. I'd thought the detour was down Friendship, but that's buses only.
epanastrophe
2013-05-09 08:18:48
Here's a link to the PGH federal projects page about this: http://www.pittsburghfederalprojects.com/index.php/penn-avenue/ It looks like a bike corral is set to go in across from spak bros (Penn and Winbiddle) and next to garfield artworks (Penn & Gross) according to the plan shown on this page. While it says the official detour starts at main, I hope they don't close off any streets until at least 45th street, since it will be kind of a mess around childrens hospital if they do.
benzo
2013-05-09 08:56:53
^ thx for the links bb & benzo
quizbot
2013-05-09 09:06:22
Phase 1 is only 4 blocks long and will have ped improvements, but no on street bike improvements other than bike corrals.
scott
2013-05-09 09:27:53
I commented on the Trib article that they did not state what the four-block stretch to be worked on will be. I'm still not sure. Matilda to Evaline? (EDIT: The map in @Benzo's link just above is quite helpful.) OK, so what would a cyclist use? Penn to the closure, then {Coral/Comrie | Gem | Dearborn} back to Penn? Friendship will be handling a lot of the car traffic, possibly both directions, I think. (Someone please prove me wrong.)
stuinmccandless
2013-05-09 11:07:16
Stu: This image shows the closed section (blue) and the auto detour (gold): http://www.pittsburghfederalprojects.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Penn-Avenue-Reconstruction_Detour-Route.png Comrie, the alley south of Penn between Edmond and Winebiddle, is a bit rough but not as bad as some. I'd probably take Comrie+Coral both ways, actually. (Somewhere in the LR Kimball site I posted above, there's info about possible bike improvements, which includes designating Coral as a primary bike route for "B-level" cyclists--i.e., those who wouldn't want to ride in Penn Ave traffic--but also marking Penn as a route for "A-level"--which comes off sounding like "hardcore" in the doc--riders. Comrie and Woolslayer are specifically acknowledged as commonly used, then discarded as being too small and too poor condition to be designated routes.)
epanastrophe
2013-05-09 11:18:57
I rarely take that stretch as the road is so crap. Friendship is always my go-to.
that_tickles
2013-05-09 11:57:10
How difficult and/or costly would it be to give Comrie/Coral the same treatment that Spring Way got? Can (and would) the city do this on its own?
stuinmccandless
2013-05-09 12:11:34
StuInMcCandless wrote:OK, so what would a cyclist use? Penn to the closure, then {Coral/Comrie | Gem | Dearborn} back to Penn? Friendship will be handling a lot of the car traffic, possibly both directions, I think. (Someone please prove me wrong.)
Coral / Comrie is an ok route. Like spring, there may not be stop signs where you need to stop (mostly on some of the narrow bits of Comrie way). Like spring used to be, it's a mess of potholes and inconsistent road conditions. If friendship is super busy, it might be the way to go.
benzo
2013-05-09 14:49:44
It would be cool if the intersection by Spaks could get those curb outs It's regularly hard to cross, there's no yielding behavior and I think people speed too, given that it's a busy street with people crossing and getting out of cars regularly I like using Coral too, but I'm wondering if it's repaved if cars will start using it as an alternative to Penn; I was thinking maybe bollards could be placed on the ends of each intersection (either outbound or inbound) so it would kind of be closed to through traffic, except for bikes
sgtjonson
2013-05-10 17:45:50
I don't think you can close Coral/Comrie. It's a utility street, e.g., garbage trucks. Not to say they can't do something to discourage its use as a thoroughfare.
stuinmccandless
2013-05-10 19:06:44
Penn Ave work will finally begin Monday.* They'll maintain a lane inbound, but outbound traffic will be diverted Main -> Liberty -> Baum -> Negley (PAT's bus detour not yet announced, but expected to be Friendship -> Negley). Expect significant added traffic on Friendship and Mossfield/Black as well, since only the section between Mathilda and Evaline will actually be closed. This is expected to last about 16 months, until December 2014. (* I'd love to link to the City's announcement directly, rather than to Bloomfield Now's facebook post with a scan of the letter to residents, but.... it's empty.)
epanastrophe
2013-08-12 20:53:29
I haven't been in PGH long enough to experience a fully open Penn Ave in Garfield/Lawrenceville, so I ask: how's the bike riding on it as a 4-lane road? Is it pretty much the same as Penn Ave going through East Liberty, Larimer and Homewood? In my time here I haven't had any issues riding up or down the hill to/from Children's Hospital. I've ridden the closed-off section inbound once or twice, but don't recall having any issues as I took the lane and drivers did not attempt to pass me.
chrishent
2014-12-30 11:06:43
It's not four lanes -- it's two plus parking -- but especially given the brand new pavement, expect it to be more like Butler, a neighborhood commercial street that many drivers treat as a highway, than, say, Ellsworth...
epanastrophe
2014-12-30 11:12:42
I can't wait for drivers to realize penn is open again so that friendship ave gets a bit friendlier and less trafficked.
benzo
2014-12-30 12:23:27
I'm going to have to try that out. I just don't get east of 40th or Friendship on Penn all that often. On Butler, though, inward of 40th, I regularly get impatient drivers breathing down my neck.
stuinmccandless
2014-12-30 15:38:26
Penn Ave was a million times better with it being a one way street. I was able to cross from the PNC ATM to Spak brothers without being run over or having to forcefully assert my right to cross the street. Same thing happened with the end of Ellsworth where the Highland Ave overpass was worked on. When it was closed, you could hang out in front of the Steel City Improv Theater, and now it's like a freeway with people speeding only to discover a stop sign a couple of hundred feet away.
sgtjonson
2014-12-30 20:52:15