Penn Avenue getting upgrades, bike lane improvements in Pittsburgh
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Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh is set to see upgrades that will improve bike lanes and update loading zones, city officials said Friday.
A $150,000 mobility enhancement project will update the corridor from Point State Park to 11th Street.
Work is expected to include repaving Penn Avenue from 9th Street to Stanwix Street, updating pavement markings, installing precast concrete curbs in the bike lane buffer and placing metal bollards to reduce vehicles accessing the bike lane, city officials said.
Two new smart loading zones — or areas designed to allow delivery drivers to park for brief periods of time — will be added as crews update the parking and loading lanes along the corridor. New signage will alert drivers of the changes.
Mayor Ed Gainey’s office said the work aims “to enhance the Penn Avenue experience for all road users.”
That includes bicyclists using the bike lanes on Penn Avenue, which were some of the first in the city, officials said. The planned upgrades for the bike lanes will remove materials that were meant to be there short-term and replace them with “elements that are not only more physically attractive, but also more robust and permanent,” city officials said.
“More importantly, the improved bike lane protection will make for a safer and more comfortable connection on some of Pittsburgh’s oldest bike lanes,” the mayor’s office said in a news release.
The loading changes included in the project aim to provide better access to loading zones, city officials said. The goal, they said, is to lower the number of illegally-parked commercial vehicles intravel and bike lanes.
Work on paving and pavement markings is expected to begin Monday. Other components will occur on a rolling basis throughout the summer, with much of the work set to be conducted overnight to limit traffic disruptions.
Officials said they do not anticipate detours during construction.