Work begins on McKnight Road Friday, drivers should expect delays

ROSS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — If you’re headed to the North Hills via McKnight Road this weekend, prepare for possible slowdowns as lane closures begin Friday at 9 a.m.

Crews have put up signs and cones to prepare drivers to expect some lane closures continuously for the next three weeks.

Drivers we spoke to are all for fixing Mcknight Road.

Driver Pablo Destach said if PennDOT wants to fix any western Pennsylvania road, he supports it.

“It has to happen, it’s gotta be done,” Destach said. “If we don’t fix them they’re going to go completely apart.”

Work will take place from Babcock Boulevard to just south of Braunlich Drive, the light at the BP where you can turn up to Best Buy.

PennDOT says traffic will be reduced to two lanes all day and down to a single-lane from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. through April 5.

This road work is just a small portion of the $25.5 million McKnight Road improvement project.

Which includes bridge and culvert preservation, milling, paving, base repairs, drainage updates, pipe cleaning guide rail upgrades signal replacement and more.

Driver Hazel Reynolds told Channel 11 she’s been traveling this road for many years, and as a retired woman, she supports the projects and any slowdowns they might cause.

“They have to get the work done, I’d rather they clean out all the drains and get the work done we will just have to live with it,” Reynolds said. “It’s been ‘McKnightmare’ sometimes, people like to weave in and out of traffic, I’m retired, I can take my time.”

Channel 11 talked to PennDOT officials Thursday. They said almost all of the work they’ll be doing in the next three weeks is underground drain work and inlet work and repairs - mostly by inserting small cameras into the pipes

You may not see what they’re doing, but they’re asking you to give crews the space they need to work safely.

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