CEE NEWS FALL 2022
C I V I L & E N V I R O N M E N TA L ENGINEERING
Annual Publication of the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering
Pitt, Pa. Turnpike Team Up to Make Mon-Fayette Expressway a Test Bed for Innovative Construction Copyright Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 2022, reprinted with permission.
W
hen construction begins next year on the Mon-Fayette Expressway between Jefferson Hills and Duquesne, the new roadway will provide more than a new travel connection for residents of the Monongahela Valley.
projects during highway construction. Turnpike engineers have been working for the past 18 months with the Impactful Resilient Infrastructure Science and Engineering consortium based at the Swanson School of Engineering to select the projects.
The new toll road also will serve as a test bed for innovative transportation construction techniques that could use noise reduction walls to reduce pollution and produce electricity from trafficgenerated road vibrations for road signs, among other things.
“We were looking for something that’s actually doable and not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing,” said Julie Marie Vandenbossche, a professor of civil engineering and former head of the consortium. “This is the largest thing we’ve done through IRISE.”
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, which is building the toll road first discussed in the 1960s, approved a $2.7 million agreement last week with the University of Pittsburgh for a series of pilot
The turnpike has been part of IRISE since it formed in 2016 as a collaboration among the engineering school, construction firms and government transportation agencies, said Ed Skorpinski, an
engineer project manager for the turnpike. After watching the group work on smaller projects such as how to reduce and respond to landslides, the agency decided to use the group to design and test innovations, he said. “We thought [building the expressway] could be a unique test bed,” Mr. Skorpinski said. The plan is to test ideas – many of which haven’t been tried before – during construction of the expressway and decide whether they produce positive results for a reasonable price. If so, they can be included in future projects, Mr. Skorpinski said. The turnpike is expected to advertise for bids for the first section of the toll road before the end continued on page 5
Mon/Fayette Expressway images courtesy Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission
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