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Those are all great points Urban and Blueblack, I especially like the McCardle roadway alignment.

I think the best thing to make ALL of these things happen is we elect a CRAZED ROAD WARRIOR like Bud Shuster in Altoona, who built the last FREE Interstate in the country in the middle of an area that is LOSING population! That kind of bulldog would do wonders for roads, streets, highways, bridges, tunnels, interstates and expansions of the T around Pittsburgh!

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Sadly, the city doesn't have the power to raise taxes on commuters without state approval. That is why the parking tax is 50% now! It was the only tax the city could raise on its own.

Like it or not, I think in many ways we are at the mercy of the suburbs. They control the state govt', and the state gov't has a lot of sway over the city. We can't control our own taxes, and at this point we can't even control our own spending, because they are watching over us like hawks.

The very best thing for the city is for private developers to do great things like the SouthSide Works, to make the city more attractive to businesses and residents. Let the suburbanites sit out there in traffic on 279 North. If we can make the city more attractive, other people will move into it, and it won't matter how many people are out there in Beaver County commuting into town.

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Those are all great points Urban and Blueblack, I especially like the McCardle roadway alignment.

I think the best thing to make ALL of these things happen is we elect a CRAZED ROAD WARRIOR like Bud Shuster in Altoona, who built the last FREE Interstate in the country in the middle of an area that is LOSING population!  That kind of bulldog would do wonders for roads, streets, highways, bridges, tunnels, interstates and expansions of the T around Pittsburgh!

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I wouldn't connect McArdle with the Birmingham Bridge, however. That's way too far away (though good for Oakland traffic). Also, it'll require too much demolition since you'd have to realign streets from 10th all the way to 22nd or so. Plus, I don't think the people on the South Side would like more traffic flwoing down Sarah Street (which would be the chosen route).

Rather, I think the flow should be down McArdle to S. 10th and then through the Armstrong. Now THAT's an underutilized corridor. On the other side of the Armstrong, a connector road can be built to better connect the roadway to Downtown Pgh. The net is that it'll only be slightly longer than the Liberty Bridge route but traffic flow would be much better. Better yet, they could open the Wabash to general traffic since much of the McArdle traffic is from the other side of Mt. Washington which goes up Woodruff to McArdle. In fact, much of it comes from Beechview. I don't think opening up the Wabash will create traffic jams in the Wabash since that roadway is not well connected enough to entice the amount of commuters the Liberty Tunnels gets. Taht said, if they open up the Wabash they'll have to build a bridge to connect it to Downtown Pgh and that'll open up a whole 'nother can of worms.

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I wouldn't connect McArdle with the Birmingham Bridge, however.  That's way too far away (though good for Oakland traffic).  Also, it'll require too much demolition since you'd have to realign streets from 10th all the way to 22nd or so.  Plus, I don't think the people on the South Side would like more traffic flwoing down Sarah Street (which would be the chosen route).

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I think the South Side is the vibrant neighborhood that it is because of the local traffic (living there means you're centered between downtown and oakland, driving thru there means you have access to shops and nightlife close to home). Creating more segregation of local and crosstown traffic through improved Liberty Tubes flow and Mcardle can really serve to equalize the congestion while keeping it more local. That's an incentive for private developers to add more/better residences and make things more vibrant.

It's to the disadvantage of the South Side, actually, to have Mcardle-bound traffic dumped onto E Carson westbound just because of a few very annoying one-way streets (well there is one other way, but it involves going through alleys half way up on south side slopes... doing some work up there too means those streets can be better-utilized, not just Sarah). The current set-up just makes traffic seem worse than it is... I think the net flow on Sarah would remain the same.

Rebuilding the Oakland/Blvd Allies interchanges as already planned would mean that Liberty Br. traffic will have an even better way of getting to Oakland and can quickly loop around to the Birmingham or Hot Metal brs and be more centered whether they're bound to South Side, SSW, or Waterfront. That should be offset for local traffic by better aligning Mcardle with the Birmingham Br. This would help eliminate the perpetual backup on Carson at the bridge intersection by better utilizing 1/2 of the traffic light cycle. Let's not forget that by making these areas friendlier to local traffic it also makes them better-suited for people commuting on things like Vespas without getting run over by a semi, pat bus, or jacked-up F150 on carson. I'm not saying that realigning Mcardle should focus on faster traffic flow, just any flow whatsoever that doesn't default to Carson Street.

I don't think the Wabash needs to be opened for general traffic quite yet because Mcardle traffic visa-vis Woodruff can just as easily head through the 'tubes onto Liberty Br. with any delay being made up by no traffic lights between the tunnel and bridge. Or they can go down to Smithfield or use the Ft Pitt or West End for that matter. The main reason for it to be opened for general users for 376 traffic bound to the South Side via Liberty Bridge to be able to loop back and get dumped off at Station Square... but the current setup of people making U-Turns on Mt Washington to get to Station Square is less than ideal in itself.

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Talking about the McCardle roadway spaghetti bowl as well as the Blvd. of the Allies/Fifth Avenue/I-376 spaghetti bowl at the entrance to the University District (Oakland), I will hand it to PennDot and the county for doing a good job on the West End interchange, what used to be a nightmare of traffic congestion going every which way (with rail tracks to add another dimension of confusion), I think the improvements there have been a great addition to the transportation in and around downtown.

westendmap.jpg

aerial_big.jpg

impmap.jpg

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RRmap.jpg

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An expanded Parkway West should have split just South of Greentree hill (inbound) with the Interstate (yes Interstate) winding around the West End and connecting to the West End Bridge (or a new bridge) to provide:

A) Seemless Interstate flow to the Northside/Hills/28 and really any Northeastern points

B ) A mandatory detour of all trucks from the Tunnel.

C) Alternative to the tunnel in case of an accident

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An expanded Parkway West should have split just South of Greentree hill (inbound) with the Interstate (yes Interstate) winding around the West End and connecting to the West End Bridge (or a new bridge) to provide:

A) Seemless Interstate flow to the Northside/Hills/28 and really any Northeastern points

B ) A mandatory detour of all trucks from the Tunnel.

C) Alternative to the tunnel in case of an accident

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That plan has been out there. There have been various proposals. I think the most recent one was that a new highway was to split off at Carnegie and basically follow the alignment of the West Busway (the busway would have been built in the median) to Carson and then follow Carson. There was to have been a connection with the West End bridge. I don't know how they proposed linking it up with the Parkway at Carson. I don't think they ever got that far.

This proposal goes back to the late 80's/early 90's when the assumption (which even back then I consisdered far-fetched) was that the new Pgh airport would drive significant growth in the West Hills, thus demanding a new highway. Back then plan was to have the new highway as wide as 10 lanes and the Parkway rebuilt from Carnegie west to the Southern Expressway. At the Southern Expressway, the roadway would split with the Southern Expressway branch going to the airport and funnelling traffic towards I-576 (the Southern Beltway which is now under construction - albeit now as PA 576) and a "Northern Expressway" (unbuilt) taking through traffic towards the Beaver Valley Expressway. The Northern was to have been built on top of present-day PA Business 60.

Needless to say, those plans were waaaaay too optimistic (as were all the predictions about growth). I think they were quietly shleved after it became apparent that the Airport was not the cure-all for regional population loss that people thought it would be.

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Well regardless the highway must be widened and I believe for many reasons the split that i mentioned should be done.

During Roddey's term a study to state the obvious was being conducted, to widen the Parkway West, but i haven't heard anything in a couple years. Have any of you?

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This is a map of a proposed turnpike bypass of the Ft. Pitt that was discussed a while back, instead of making Ft. Pitt's two lanes in each directions larger just go around it.

airporttollroadmap.jpg

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This is a map of a proposed turnpike bypass of the Ft. Pitt that was discussed a while back, instead of making Ft. Pitt's two lanes in each directions larger just go around it.

airporttollroadmap.jpg

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This proposal will still cause tie-ups, however. All it will do is shift some traffic from the Ft. Pitt to the Ft. Duquense bridge since I imagine the plan is for that road to tie into PA 65. Both brigdes are poorly designed if picturesque. The real problem with Pgh traffic is not the lack of roads (sure they're not great, but they're not teh crux of the problem) but rather the lack of access points to the center of the city thanks to the geographic constrictions. This plan will not relieve that. Instead, it'll jsut create another bottleneck. What is needed is another tunnel/bridge access point.

I actually think tying the Birmingham to the Parkway East (somehow) and to a tunnel through the mountain and over to PA 51 would be a major help. THere wouldn't even be a need for a highway extending south from there. What it'll do is allow for PA 51 and 88 traffic (which is alot) to access Downtown and Oakland via a new access point instead of cramming into the Liberty Tunnels along with West Liberty traffic. A huge part of why the Ft. Pitt tunnels are so tied up (and hence the Parkway West) is because much of the traffic that would go through the Liberty instead goes down Banksville to the Ft. Pitt beacuse the Liberty is often tied up.

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^^you could take the Veterans Bridge and I-579 then connect up to the Parkway East or Parkway North, much of that Ft Pitt Tunnel bottleneck are people going from the Airport to the East Hills and Monroeville or to the north hills. As far as that traffic is concerned a link up to 65 would make it easier (if you interstate over the 579/Parkway east interchange, though the 579 actually ends right before it gets to the Parkway East).

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