Let me rant for a bit on the sorry state of the infrastructure in Pittsburgh. Simply put, our street/highway system is not good. How bad can it be, you say? Well, let me give you a list of the worst bits of road in the city, and you can decide for yourself. These aren’t necessarily in any order, but the worst of the lot is closer to the top.

1. The Parkway East (I-376)/Squirrel Hill Interchange:
This has so much going for it. If you entering I-376 heading east, you join the highway approximately 20 meters from the exit ramp, so you have roughly 5 seconds to cut across the exit lane and into the traffic. Add to the fact that the Squirrel Hill tunnel is another 40 meters up the road (which brings with it the Pittsburghers fear of all things tunnel), and it just gets worse. If you’re exiting heading east to go to Squirrel Hill, you’ve got deal with people trying to get on the Parkway, as well as traffic that has looped around from the westbound exit ramp. All in all, good fun.

2. Route 28:
Route 28 is such a bad stretch of highway, it contains several pieces of civil engineering stupidity. Let’s see….

* The interchange with I-279. Take a look at map of Pittsburgh sometime, and find the interchange of route 28 and I-279. According to a high level map, it looks as if getting from one highway to the other would be quite simple, as route 28 goes right over I-279. Looks can be deceiving, however. If you heading south (towards city) on route 28, you have to go through a minimum of 4 lights to get on I-279 north, and 3 to get on I-279 south. Now, this may not seem to ludicrious, but if you continue on route 28 past the I-279 exit, you will soon find yourself driving between the lanes on I-279. Yes, that’s right, I-279 was built around route 28. I can spit out my window on the interstate, but it takes at least 5 minutes to get driving it on route 28.

* Route 28 and the 31st Street Bridge. First….route 28 is one of the major arteries into downtown Pittsburgh. So you’d think it would be a wide highway, devoid of lights. Well, you’re wrong. Not far from the I-279 debacle, there is a traffic light where the 31st Bridge deposits its traffic. Now, one redlight isn’t a bad thing, but the intersection includes a ramp coming from River Avenue. Of course, the ramp intersects the bridge before the intersection with route 28, so there is an additional traffic light at the top of the ramp. The word on the street is if you miss the green light on that ramp, it 15 minutes until the next one. And this is during rush hour.

* Route 28 and the 40th Street Bridge. This would be the fastest way to get from our house to I-279, except that you can sit at the traffic for close to 10 minutes at the end of the bridge. Just plain stupid.

To add insult to injury, last year the city closed the 16th Street Bridge, which come from downtown to intersection of route 28 and I-279. That’s fine, right? You’ve got the 40th and 31st Street bridges to compensate. Then the city says, “oh, by the way, we’re going to limit traffic on those bridges as well to do more construction.”

3. Crosstown Blvd:
This stretch of road must be frightening to out-of-towners. This cuts through the upper part of downtown, with traffic coming from all directions at high speed. The mess is due to lots of poor planning and the addition of several other major roads into town.

4. The Homestead Highlevel Bridge/The Waterfront:
This hasn’t completely blown up in the city and county’s collective face yet. The Waterfront is an enormous shopping plaza built on the site of an old steel mill (that’s “still miwl” if you’re from the ‘burgh). It is immensely popular, and while you can access it from other points besides the bridge, the bridge is the primary entry point if you live in city. The Highlevel Bridge is old. It looks old, it sounds old. It will need work sooner rather than later. But I don’t think the owners of the Waterfront will be pleased to see the main thoroughfare into their mall closed. Can’t wait to see that one.

5. The Fort Pitt Tunnels, Inbound:
Again, following the classic “put the exit ramp right after the entrance ramp” scenario. Except the entrance ramp is 2 lanes of highway, and brief stretch of three lane road the ramps create becomes a shooting gallery of cars trying to get on and off the interstate. Thankfully, though, this important piece of highway has been under various stages of construction for the past few years, so the problems are a bit more, uh, sporadic.

6. The West End Circle:
This stretch of route became the primary detour during the Fort Pitt construction. After you cross the West End Bridge, you do a little cicane around a railroad overpass. The county decided to wait until the Fort Pitt construction was nearly finished before straightening this section of road out (which would have alleviated even more traffic). Gee, thanks.

Posted on 2 August 2003