Staff Editorial

In a city where there is constant road work and construction, patience is key.

While many Duquesne commuters already face a slew of orange detour signs and navigational map’s foreboding “rerouting” during their commute to and from campus, Pittsburgh Regional Transit will be adding additional construction crews and lane closures by the end of this month.

PRT’s goal is to complete the second phase of construction for the University Line, a bus rapid transit system that will carry passengers along Fifth and Forbes, connecting Pittsburgh’s Oakland, Uptown and Downtown neighborhoods.

PRT held a meeting last week that outlined the plan for the new bus line.

The construction will create six miles of new lanes exclusively for buses which will have priority at traffic lights along that route that runs inbound on Fifth Avenue and outbound on Forbes Avenue, which will help reduce heavy traffic in these areas.

Phase two will start along Forbes Avenue, which will undoubtedly create a cluster of confusion for students and faculty trying to navigate to and from campus; however, the $291 million project will include 18 new bus shelters, improved street lighting, added bike lanes, more traffic signals and improved sidewalks.

Once construction is finished, five bus routes will follow the path. In the meantime, the 61A, 61B, 61C, 71B and P3 buses currently use the route.

Starting in Downtown, the loop will stop at five stations including Fifth Avenue and Ross Street, Fifth and William Penn Place, Fifth and Market Square, the Wood Street T Station, and the Steel Plaza T station.

The bus line will create an easier and more accessible way for residents to navigate around the city and provide a direct line to connect many of Pittsburgh’s college campuses such as University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Point Park and of course – Duquesne.

Despite the transportation perks once the project is fully completed, there should have been more coordination between the City of Pittsburgh and PRT prior to the beginning of construction.

The bridge connecting Oakland to Schenley Park and Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Panther Hollow Bridge, has been closed to traffic since October 2024 due to an “abundance of caution,” according to the city’s website, and will remain closed after inspection.

The Charles Anderson Bridge, which also connects Oakland to Schenley Park and Squirrel Hill, is also closed and is in the midst of a two-year renovation project. The two bridge closures have detoured eastbound traffic along Forbes Avenue.

Closing down an entire section of an extremely busy corridor while there is already increased congestion seems like a poor plan.

PRT said it expects construction of the University Line to wrap up the project by 2027, so until then, all of Pittsburgh’s horn happy drivers are going to need to take some extra deep breaths.