New Set of Traffic Lights Coming to Route 51 at Nobles Lane Intersection

A new set of traffic lights is coming soon to the Nobles Lane intersection on Route 51. The lights are temporary, but some detours may rack up your vehicle’s mileage and/or lengthen your commute.

Allegheny County Department of Public Works’ Construction Engineering Project Manager Jeanna Fisher said on Wednesday, March 2, that reconstruction is needed for that intersection’s nearby Colerain Street bridge and that it is that bridge work – and related road detours – that has necessitated the installation of the new temporary set of lights.

Fisher said that the work to be done on the Colerain bridge – officially known as Saw Mill Run Bridge No. 6 – is primarily the reconstruction of its box-beam supports. The Colerain bridge sits over a nearby creek, and that bridge is not to be confused with the large overhead pathway at the Route 51-Colerain intersection. That is a Port Authority bridge.

According to Fisher, the Colerain bridge work is scheduled to start in four weeks from Wednesday – most likely – and should last until early July 2011. The bridge will be closed while it is being worked on, so detours will direct traffic away from that area.

For example, traffic heading north on Route 51 toward Downtown Pittsburgh will not be able to get to Whited Street by using the Nobles-Colerain jug handle. Instead, that traffic will have to travel farther down Route 51 – past the Liberty Tunnels – as part of a detour that will loop traffic back onto Route 51 heading south. At that point, traffic can then eventually make a right onto Whited. Left turns onto Whited from Route 51 will still be illegal.

Traffic heading south on Route 51 from Downtown Pittsburgh will still be able to turn right onto Whited but will not be able to turn left onto Colerain. That traffic will also not be permitted to turn left onto Nobles because of congestion concerns. Instead, that traffic will have to travel farther down Route 51 to Maytide Street and then to Brownsville Road in order to ultimately reach Colerain.

The traffic that would typically use the Colerain bridge to get to Route 51 is what is truly causing the need for the temporary set of lights, because Nobles will now be the only option for that traffic once the work on the Colerain bridge begins.

The set of traffic lights that already exists at the Route 51-Whited-Colerain intersection will remain operational since traffic from Whited will still be able to turn left or right onto Route 51 during the Colerain bridge work. The traffic from Whited that wishes to get to Colerain will have to follow the aforementioned Maytide-to-Brownsville detour. (For those unfamiliar with the Route 51-Whited intersection, know that Whited turns into Colerain as it reaches Route 51, and vice versa.)

The Colerain bridge was last reconstructed in 1987, according to Fisher, but there has been some deterioration on its box beams since then.

“Route 51 does have a tendency to flood,” Fisher said, “and it [flooding] did do some damage to the box beams underneath. So, the whole bridge has to be reconstructed.

“The bridge stacks and the box beams underneath need to be reconstructed.”

The Brookline, Carrick and Overbrook communities of the City of Pittsburgh all closely border or contain parts of the Route 51-Nobles intersection. The Colerain bridge work and the temporary lights nearby will affect many commuters from those communities, as it will commuters from other South Hills communities like , the and the , who use Route 51 to get to and from Downtown Pittsburgh.

Once the Colerain bridge work is complete, the new lights – which are up but covered and not turned on right now – will no longer be used.