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February 2, 2001

TRAFFIC ADVISORY:
PA Route 88 to Reopen by Monday Morning at Mon/Fayette Construction Site

Pa. Route 88 will reopen by Monday morning, Feb. 5 at a construction site between Mon City and Finleyville, just north of Ringgold High School, where dual bridges are being built to carry the new Mon/Fayette Expressway.

The closure has been in effect since December 4 to allow for the erection of steel beams that will support the bridge decks. 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 closed for approximately one week after Route 88 reopens while crews use it as a disassembly area.

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

The dual bridges under construction will be the highest spans on the Pennsylvania Turnpike system at some 250 feet, crossing over Route 88, Ginger Hill Road, 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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