We begin today with an unusual but eminently sensible plea from Operation Lifesaver of Pennsylvania, a rail safety organization, to professional photographers. It is asking them to refrain from shooting school, wedding or prom pictures on train tracks or trestles. From Don Lubinsky, executive director:

“We know that photographers seek creative portrait settings; however, using train tracks as a backdrop for photos is not only dangerous, it is illegal trespassing. This spring, as part of our mission to reduce deaths and injuries around trains, we are asking professional and amateur photographers to set the right example by staying away from train tracks.”

In December, a California high school art teacher and photographer was struck and killed by a train while taking photos on the tracks. In response, Operation Lifesaver has worked with Professional Photographers of America on rail safety education outreach. Here’s David Trust, CEO of the PPA:

“Trackside settings have become popular for senior, wedding, and family portraits. But photographers need to know the laws and the safety ramifications of staging a photo shoot near train tracks. PPA applauds Operation Lifesaver programs that educate photographers about the danger to themselves and their clients of working near tracks.”

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Traffic restrictions for a major reconstruction project will begin Monday on Route 19-Washington Road in Mt. Lebanon, and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will hold an informational meeting for the public on Monday night. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the municipal building, 710 Washington Road. As the meeting begins, water line relocation by Pennsylvania American Water will start, closing the northbound lanes of Washington Road from Gilkeson and Connor roads to Terrace Drive. Traffic will be restricted to one lane in both directions using the southbound side of the road starting at 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and continuing until 5 a.m. the next day. The official start of the $5.6 million PennDOT project is April 22. It calls for milling and resurfacing Washington Road from the intersection at Connor and Gilkeson to Alfred Street in the heart of the business district. It also will reconfigure the Connor-Gilkeson intersection, adding a second eastbound through lane from Gilkeson to Connor to eliminate a bottleneck. Traffic signals will be upgraded through the corridor.

More Route 65 restrictions from Chestnut Street in Sewickley to the Beaver County line will occur weekdays starting Monday and continuing through the end of the month. Crews will paint crosswalks, do electrical work, repair guiderail, install ADA ramps, stain concrete wall and perform other minor tasks to complete the project. Short-term single lane closures will occur as needed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

The ramp connecting the Liberty Bridge to northbound Interstate 579-Crosstown Boulevard will be closed from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday while crews place concrete to construct a drainage system above a retaining wall.

Fort Pitt Tunnel washing will close an inbound lane overnight starting at 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday and an outbound lane at 10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. Work wraps by 5 a.m. daily.

Maple Avenue in Wilmerding will be closed from Second Street to Middle Avenue from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing through early October during work on retaining walls.

Route 22 will have rolling lane closures between the Oakdale interchange and the Washington County line as crews continue research for a future project from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through April 26.

Expansion of the Route 19 intersection at Freeport Road in Marshall will begin Monday, with crews adding a right-turn lane from northbound Route 19 to Freeport Road, two left-turn lanes from Freeport Road to southbound Route 19 and a turn lane from Freeport to northbound Route 19. Other improvements include new traffic signals, signage, curbing, ADA ramps, drainage and widening. Lane closures will be possible weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. through mid-July.

DON’T GET BLINDSIDED ... there’s more! Read the previous post and stay out of harm’s way this weekend.

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Amtrak continues to enjoy record-setting ridership, including the single-best month ever in March.

This week, the railroad reported a nearly 1 percent ridership gain for the first six months of fiscal 2013 despite service disruptions from Superstorm Sandy. Twenty-six of 45 routes saw gains and Amtrak said it expects to finish the fiscal year at or above last year’s record ridership of 31.2 million.

There was good news for the Pennsylvanian, the route that had been in jeopardy before the state and Amtrak reached a subsidy agreement recently. Ridership was up 4.3 percent.

Incidentally, at a hearing before the Pennsylvania House Transportation Committee this week, PennDOT deputy secretary Toby Fauver, whose department agreed to pay $3.8 million to keep the Pennsylvanian running, said the subsidy amounts to $15 to $16 per passenger, and called the current fares “low,” saying they may have to be raised. Stay tuned.

The Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York Keystone route had a 5.2 percent ridership gain for the six-month period.

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All taxed out, bunky? The Gateway Clipper wants to give you a discount. For one day only, tax day, Monday, April 15, cruises will be 25 percent off. Visit www.gatewayclipper.com for more information.

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ICYMI: American Airlines will start nonstop service from Pittsburgh International Airport to Los Angeles on Aug. 27. Read the Post-Gazette coverage here.

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Inbound Route 28 will be down to one lane from the 40th Street Bridge to East Ohio Street from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. We continue to hear drumbeats from the work site that construction around the 31st Street Bridge will be completed early -- maybe a year ahead of schedule. PennDOT for now is sticking with the original projection of late 2014.

Piggy driver item: PennDOT will close the outbound left lane on Route 28 at various points between Etna and Fox Chapel from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays through April 19 while its crews remove “excess litter and debris” from the side of the road.

A section of the Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway will be closed this weekend for construction on the South Highland Avenue Bridge and East Liberty Transit Center projects, and repairs to the Neville Ramp, Port Authority announced. The closure will begin at midnight on Saturday and conclude by the start of service on Monday, causing detour of the P1 East Busway-All Stops route through East Liberty. The route will not serve Penn, Herron, Negley and East Liberty stations during the closure, and will instead use Bigelow Boulevard, Baum Boulevard and Penn Avenue between Downtown and the busway ramp at Port Authority’s East Liberty bus garage. Temporary stops will be located on local streets near the stations: Bigelow at Herron, Baum at Roup/Negley and Penn near the East Liberty Target. Additionally, the P1’s Downtown stops will change slightly during the detour. P1 riders should allow for extra travel time during the work.

Travel on Interstate 79 in Butler County is going to get more complicated starting on Saturday. Starting then, northbound traffic will be shifted to the southbound side of the highway, with single-lane traffic in both directions, at a bridge replacement project at the Route 422 interchange, Exit 99 in Muddycreek. Delays are likely from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday while crews make the transition. The two-year, $14 million project will replace both bridges. Next season, southbound traffic will be crossed to the northbound side. About 25,000 vehicles use that section of highway on a typical day. Also on Saturday, the ramp from eastbound Route 422 to northbound I-79 will close at about 7 a.m. and remain closed through late July.

Lane closures and restrictions are possible on Route 837-State Street from the Glassport-Clairton Bridge to New England Road in Clairton and on Route 148 from the Port Vue-15th Street Bridge to Lysle Boulevard in McKeesport from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing through June for resurfacing.

The bridge at the end of Duncan Avenue in Hampton, where it connects to Route 8, will close April 22 for replacement.

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Work is progressing on the last gap in the Great Allegheny Passage. Linda Boxx, president of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, said precast concrete panels for the wall being built at the Keystone Metals site were to arrive this week. June, and the celebration of the completion of the final mile, will be here before we know it. Ms. Boxx said there are still openings for the “Passage to Pittsburgh” rides from Washington, D.C., to Point State Park from June 8-15 and the shorter ride from Cumberland, Md., to the Point, June 12-15. For details, pedal your browser here.

One more nagging reminder: the outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel closes from 11 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday, and if you go anywhere near it, expect to spend a good bit of your beautiful spring weekend gazing at red taillights.

Sign inspections will cause lane closures on the outbound Parkway East from Churchill to Monroeville-Plum from 6 a.m. to noon Saturday.

Pavement inspection will begin Sunday night on Route 22 between the Tonidale Road-Montour Church Road-Steubenville Pike interchange and the Washington County line. This will be a slow-moving operation that will cause loan closures in either direction starting at 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday nights through late April. Work ends by 6 a.m. daily.

Scott Road will be closed at the intersection of Montour Run Road in Moon, cutting off access to Casteel Drive and causing possible 15-minute stoppages on the Montour Trail from 5 p.m. today through 6 a.m. Monday and again during the same hours the following weekend. Watch for flaggers if you’re on the trail.

Inspection of the Tarentum Bridge will cause alternating one-way traffic at times from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays starting Monday and continuing into early May.

Inspection of bridges and signs will cause occasional lane closures on the Parkway West this weekend: outbound from Green Tree to Rosslyn Farms from 7 a.m. to noon Saturday and inbound from Interstate 79 to Carnegie from 7 a.m. to noon Sunday.

The inbound Fort Pitt Tunnel will have single-lane traffic after 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, while crews wash it. Work ends by 5 a.m. daily. Coupled with the full overnight closures of the Liberty Tunnels, this could complicate late-night travels.

The Mount Washington Transit Tunnel will be closed to buses from about 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday during rail work, Port Authority announced. Light Rail Transit service will be single-tracked between South Hills Junction and the Panhandle Bridge. Outbound riders at South Hills Junction and Station Square will board from the inbound platforms. These bus routes will detour on inbound trips via Warrington and Arlington avenues and via the Wabash Tunnel and Warrington Avenue on outbound trips: 40 Mount Washington, 41 Bower Hill, 44 Knoxville, Y46 Elizabeth Flyer and Y49 Prospect Flyer.

Bridge inspection will cause lane closures on Interstate 79 in both directions north of Bridgeville (Exit 54) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday.

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Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed a two-year, $7.6 billion bill for transportation and public safety on Monday, which will supply $4 billion for road and bridge work, according to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. Mr. Kasich announced his plan to raise revenue for transportation on Dec. 13 and it took less than four months to see it become law.

One is left to wonder what they’re thinking in the Buckeye State. No blue-ribbon commission? No endless dawdling on the part of the governor and legislators? Just put together a plan and quickly get it through the legislative process? That’s not how we do business in Pennsylvania.

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Maybe it’s me but I have had almost no success in getting the Port Authority’s new smartcard vending machines to issue me correct receipts. Twice the machines have given me someone else’s receipt and several times nothing at all. Otherwise, the ConnectCard system seems to be working well. Kinda strange that receipt printing — not exactly cutting-edge technology — is what’s tripping up these sophisticated machines.

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Pennsylvania State Police are cracking down on speeding in the Squirrel Hill Tunnels construction zone. State police have issued 131 citations and 15 written warnings and made 10 DUI arrests since Jan. 1. The speed limit through the construction zone is 45 mph. PennDOT reminds that going 11 mph over the work zone limit can bring a 15-day license suspension. Also, some fines are doubled in work zones.

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In case you forgot, nightly closures of the Liberty Tunnels begin today. The tunnels will close in both directions at 10 p.m. Sundays through Fridays, reopening daily by 6 a.m. These closures will continue through November as the next phase of tunnel rehabilitation is done.

PennDOT also has scheduled overnight maintenance in the Fort Pitt Tunnels, the primary detour for Liberty Tunnels traffic. The inbound tunnel will have single-lane traffic from 10 p.m. Wednesday to 5 a.m. Thursday; the outbound tunnel will be down to one lane from 10 p.m. Thursday to 5 a.m. Friday.

The ramp from the inbound lower deck of the Fort Duquesne Bridge to Fort Duquesne Boulevard will be closed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, weather permitting, to allow work on signs. The detour is via the 10th Street Bypass ramp to right turns at 10th Street, Penn Avenue and Ninth Street. A lane also will be closed during that time on the inbound 10th Street Bypass near the Fancourt Bridge overpass as crews replace an overhead light fixture.

Lane closures are possible on Cochran Road between Beverly and Washington roads in Mt. Lebanon from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday during drilling for a future project.

Drilling and research for future improvements on Route 65 may cause lane closures between Interstate 79 in Glenfield and Chestnut Street in Sewickley from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

Overhead sign inspections will cause lane closures and traffic shifts on Route 28 and Route 366-Bull Creek Road on Friday. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the restrictions are possible on northbound Bull Creek Road near the Route 28 interchange in Fawn and on the northbound Tarentum Bridge. Restrictions are possible from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in both directions on Route 28 between Millvale and Etna.

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