Major traffic changes are coming to two busy Pittsburgh neighborhoods.
Oakland area:
On Sunday, changes are coming that will affect the daily commute of thousands of Pittsburgh Regional Transit Bus Riders.
The outbound bus lane on Fifth Avenue, which runs against traffic in Oakland from Carlow University to just past the University of Pittsburgh, is being discontinued.
Instead, outbound buses will flow along with general traffic on Forbes Avenue.
Eventually, the curb-bound lane on Forbes will become a bus only lane.
PRT Chief Development Officer Amy Silbermann says this project is focused on efficiency.
“Today they get very bunched up because they have unreliable conditions, once they get bunched up we get big gaps in service where you might wait a really long time to then go on a really overcrowded bus,” said Silbermann.
PRT admits they do expect heavier congestion on Forbes at first, but PRT Police and others will be monitoring to make sure traffic flows, and watching out for illegal loading and unloading.
In all, 17 outbound Fifth Avenue stops are being eliminated and nine routes are being moved onto Forbes.
Strip District:
Getting around in the Strip District is about to become a little trickier.
Starting on Monday, three of four lanes of Liberty Avenue from the 2500 block to the 2600 block will be closed for a water line replacement.
That means both outbound lanes and one of the inbound lanes will be out of commission until the work is done, in about seven days.
Outbound traffic will be detoured from Liberty to 25th, to Smallman down to 30th, where drivers will get back onto Liberty.