(Announcements, News)

Motorists beware: A $3.6 million project to improve Route 51 between Large and the Bill Green Shopping Center begins this week, weather permitting.

Jim Struzzi, district spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, says work is slated to begin tonight on a nearly three-mile stretch of Route 51 between the Pleasant Hills cloverleaf (Lebanon Church and Curry Hollow roads) and Lewis Run Road (the turn-off to Jefferson Hospital).

The project includes milling and resurfacing, concrete pavement patching, bridge superstructure replacement, drainage improvements, new guide rails and curbs, and traffic light upgrades, Struzzi says. General contractor is Lane Construction Co. of Thornburg.

Work will continue through late October, according to Struzzi.

According to PennDOT traffic estimates, about 23,000 vehicles daily use that stretch of road, which includes most of Pleasant Hills' "big box" retail stores, along with the hospital, Southland Four Seasons Shopping Center and access to Century III Mall.

To minimize traffic problems during rush hour, much of the work will be done overnight, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Mondays through Fridays and from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

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Meanwhile, temporary restrictions will be in place on Fifth Avenue in the East End this week while crews take core samples for a possible repaving project.

On Wednesday and Thursday, weather permitting, crews will temporarily close lanes of Route 148 between Pennsylvania Avenue in White Oak and Route 30 in North Versailles Township, Struzzi says.

Only a single lane in one direction will be closed at a time, Struzzi says, and the work will be done between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., outside of rush hours.

Crews from SJB Services of Hamburg, N.Y., are conducting "geotechnical drilling and other research," he says.