Nov 9, 2006 7:00 pm US/Eastern
'T' Project Evokes Memories Of First Big Dig
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Pittsburghers faced detours for years in the 1980's during the light rail system's initial construction.
KDKA
It's been about two decades since Pittsburgh first got its light rail system, and downtown went through plenty of changes.
The demolition of the old Carlton House Hotel was just one of the changes in store for downtown as Pittsburgh got ready for its first subway in the early 1980's.
Groundbreaking for the subway and Steel Plaza station began where the Carlton House used to be and began years of digging and detours.
The first major barricades marked the path of the subway along Sixth Avenue between Grant and Wood Streets.
Engineers pumped away underground water from Pittsburgh's so-called "Fourth River" as they built the Gateway Center Station.
Traffic patterns were altered for a couple of years.
Now a little more than 20 years later, the Port Authority is getting ready for another subway dig.
But this one is different in a couple of ways.
"With the tunnel boring machine that we've selected for this project, we'll be able to build 2,400 feet of the project and you'll never see it underway," explained Henry Nutbrown, Port Authority Engineering Director.
The tunnel will go underneath the Allegheny River between Penn and Stanwix downtown to General Robinson Street on the North Side.
The one-block area between Liberty and Stanwix Street will be detoured for about two years.
"This has all been worked out with the city traffic engineering folks so it's been well planned and it's very limited given the size of the project," said Nutbrown.
Underground water will present a different challenge this time.
"We will be below that and that means that the contractor will have to use a pumping system to keep the area dry while the construction is going on," explained Nutbrown. "The subway box will be water proofed again and there will be a permanent pumping system used so that any water that would get into the subway box can be pumped back out again."
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Looking Back At The PAT Light Rail Project (1985) | 
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