Construction starts Thursday on a light-rail project that will disrupt the commute of T riders Downtown for the next two months.
Crews will repair and replace the giant concrete beams that hold up the light-rail tracks — called a plinth — in Downtown Pittsburgh. It’s a part of a $150 million series of projects to fix and improve Pittsburgh’s light-rail system during the next four years.
Work on fixing up the plinth started back in 2022. Since then, crews have been working on nights and weekends. But now, Pittsburgh Regional Transit will have to close sections of the T to finish the job.
Starting Jan. 2, inbound trains headed to Downtown will stop at the First Avenue station. From there, a shuttle bus will come every 10 minutes and take riders to the Steel Plaza station. And a temporary “subway local” train will take passengers between Steel Plaza and the Allegheny station on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. Work on that section is expected to wrap up in early February and shift to the section of rail between Steel Plaza and Gateway Plaza.
From early February to early March, inbound trains will end at the Penn station along the East Busway — a station that isn’t usually open. Shuttles will run every 10 minutes to take riders between the Penn and Gateway stations. And from there, a “subway local” will take riders to the Allegheny station and back every 10 minutes.
Work also starts this month on a $1.5 million maintenance project on sections of the T in the South Hills. A special machine will “grind the rail” to a uniform standard that cuts down on wear for rail cars’ wheels and makes for a smoother ride, according to PRT. No stations are expected to close while crews work.
