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TRAFFIC ADVISORY:
PA Route 88 to Remain Closed Through January 
for Ongoing Construction of Dual Bridges on Mon/Fayette Expressway

Pa. Route 88 will remain closed for another three to four weeks at a location between Mon City and Finleyville, just north of Ringgold High School, so that crews can continue erecting steel beams for dual bridges that will carry the Mon/Fayette Expressway.

The closure took effect December 4. Initially, construction supervisors anticipated a reopening in approximately four weeks but harsh weather conditions slowed the work and forced an extension of the schedule.

The segment of Route 88 affected by the closure is between Patterson Road and Gearing Road in Union Township, Washington County, and includes its intersection with Ginger Hill Road. Ginger Hill Road has been closed between Route 88 and Little Mingo Road since November 13 and will remain so through the duration of the Route 88 closure.

Access to Little Mingo Road from Ginger Hill Road is not affected.

A posted detour directs traffic around the closure via Pa. Route 136, Pa. Route 837, and Finleyville-Elrama Road (SR 1006), or vice versa.

The dual bridges under construction will be the highest spans on the Pennsylvania Turnpike system at some 250 feet, crossing over Route 88, Mingo Creek and an active Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad trestle built 70 years ago for the Pittsburgh & Western Railroad.

Dick Corporation is the general contractor for the 1.8-mile, $49.2 million construction section of the Mon/Fayette Expressway that includes the bridges.

The bridges are part of the 17-mile Mon/Fayette Expressway Project north from Interstate 70 in Fallowfield Township, Washington County to Pa. Route 51 in Jefferson Hills Borough, Allegheny County.

A four-mile stretch of the project north from I-70 to the interchange with Coyle Curtin Road (SR 2025) is to open in Spring 2001. The remaining 13 miles will open in early 2002.

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