Now that the thingamajig that posts links to blogs on the homepage of post-gazette.com has been fixed — it’s been broken a lot lately and backed up like a clogged toilet starting on Tuesday — we’ll put up another edition of The Roundabout.

Wednesday’s post never made it to the homepage. It was on the site and still is if you want to look back. One thing you'll find there is details of a free Friday class for those preparing to make their first long-distance bike trip. It's Downtown during lunch hour.
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If you missed it, there was a scary moment or two in the Fort Pitt Tunnel this morning when an outbound truck started spewing smoke, which could be seen billowing from the tunnel. Turned out to be a mechanical problem, no injuries and was cleared after several minutes, but that toppled the dominoes and made getting to Downtown from all directions an ordeal. Crashes on the inbound sides of the Parkway East and Route 28 a bit later didn’t help matters.

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PennDOT announced Monday that the Chateau Street turnaround to Beaver Avenue on the North Side had been closed for construction, but in the coming days, drivers noticed something odd — it wasn’t closed. PennDOT said the contractor didn’t have all the needed signage for the detour, and that the turnaround closed today. Target date for reopening is May 31.

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The outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel closes at 10 p.m. Friday and reopens by 6 a.m. Monday but to add to the tangle, the on-ramp to the outbound Parkway East at Edgewood-Swissvale also will be closed. The official detour moves through Wilkinsburg to the Forest Hills on-ramp.

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Reminder that the Red Line will have inbound detours this weekend. On Saturday and Sunday, inbound service will operate from South Hills Village to Overbrook Junction, then detour via the Blue Line route to South Hills Junction, where it will resume regular routing. Rail shuttles will operate between Overbrook Junction and Potomac and bus shuttles will serve stops from Potomac to South Hills Junction. Outbound service will operate normally. Inbound work and detours also are tentatively scheduled for April 27-28, May 11-12 and May 18-19.

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Late-night turnpike travelers beware: it will be closed in both directions between New Castle (Exit 10) and Cranberry (Exit 28) from 11:59 p.m. Saturday until 4 a.m. Sunday for removal of an overhead bridge. The 44-mile posted detour uses Interstate 376, Route 422 and I-79. They’ll hand you a card with directions as you exit. Also, a five-mile section will be closed in both directions between Harrisburg East (Exit 247) and Harrisburg West (Exit 242) from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday. Crews will remove overhead bridge beams.

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The two center lanes on both decks of the Fort Pitt Bridge will be closed overnight for crash barrier repairs. On the inbound deck, the closure starts at 10 p.m.; outbound starts at 2 a.m. The work concludes by 5 a.m. Friday.

Traffic will be shifted on the ramp from Parkway Center to the inbound Parkway West from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. while inspections are done. The ramp will stay open.

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 do concrete work to improve drainage at the giant retaining wall.

Short-term lane closures are possible on Route 51 between Wray Large Road and Worthington Drive in Jefferson Hills from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting Monday and continuing through May 10 as crews take test borings for a future improvement project.

Periods of alternating one-way traffic will occur on the bridge that carries Culmerville Road over the Canadian Northern railroad tracks in West Deer from 9 a.m to 3 p.m. weekdays through May 22 during repairs that began today. The bridge is between Saxonburg Boulevard and Norris Lane.

Traffic will be stopped for about 15 minutes on Route 22 between the Noblestown-Kelso Road and Route 978 interchanges in North Fayette between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. Saturday during installation of fiber optic cable over the road.

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PennDOT again will close the outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel for construction this weekend, but with a twist -- the on-ramp to the outbound Parkway East at Edgewood-Swissvale also will close, sending drivers on a detour from the usual detour. The tunnel and ramp will close at 10 p.m. Friday and reopen by 6 a.m. Monday.

This weekend’s work has two posted detours. A daylight detour (in effect 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.) follows Forward Avenue, Beechwood Boulevard and Forbes Avenue to a left on South Braddock Avenue, right on Penn Avenue through Wilkinsburg to Ardmore Boulevard and the on-ramp in Forest Hills.

The night detour uses Murray Avenue instead of Forbes Avenue. The use of different detours is to reduce traffic jams in the Squirrel Hill business district by day, and residential-area traffic by night.

The inbound tunnel will remain open through the weekend.

Delays of more than 90 minutes were reported during last weekend’s closure. PennDOT recommends avoiding the area if possible.

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Gasoline prices in Western Pennsylvania dropped 8 cents per gallon in the past week to an average of $3.56, AAA Fuel Gauge reports. Pennsylvania ranks 24th in the country for the state average price of gasoline, $3.49. The lowest average price as of Tuesday was Wyoming at $3.334 and the high was Hawaii at $4.366. The Western Pennsylvania average is 4 cents above the national average of $3.52. In recent weeks, we had been 20 cents higher, so that’s a nice development. The national average has dropped 16 cents in the past month and is 34 cents below the average a year ago.

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The Pennsylvania Turnpike will install recharging stations for electric vehicles at four service plazas this summer: Oakmont, New Stanton, Bowmansville in Lancaster County and King of Prussia in Montgomery County. They will be in the rear of the parking lots, behind the service plaza buildings. Customers can pay with credit cards. The price will be announced before the stations open. Eventually, all 17 service plazas will be equipped to juice your Prius or Volt.

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Seth Gernot, an expert on bike tours of the Great Allegheny Passage, our soon-to-be 335-mile connection to Washington, D.C., will teach a class on how to prepare — how to equip your bike and yourself and where to stay overnight — on Friday from noon to 1 p.m. at Bruno Works, 945 Liberty Ave., Suite 500, in Downtown Pittsburgh. Free to the people, and you’re welcome to pack a lunch.

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Intermittent lane closures are possible for the next three months on the sister bridges over the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh as crews make steel repairs. Work will begin on the Roberto Clemente Bridge on Friday, with traffic restricted to one lane in both directions. The work will progress to the Andy Warhol and Rachel Carson bridges. Work hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and no more than one bridge at a time will be restricted, per Allegheny County public works.

Audubon Road will be closed from Fern Hollow Road to Little Sewickley Creek Road in Sewickley Heights from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday during paving.

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We’re still experimenting with it, but we’d love to have you drop by and “like” our Facebook page, Pittsburgh On the Go, where you’ll find a bunch of transportation stuff. Today we posted about a nice expansion project on the Montour Trail, motorcycle fatalities, money problems at Philadelphia’s transit agency (sound familiar?) and the aforementioned Squirrel Hill Tunnel closure.

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The warm weather has brought out PennDOT line painting trucks, and its annual admonition to motorists to stay back 250 feet, or about 13 car lengths, lest your vehicle get painted, too. Don’t pass a paint truck unless crews direct you to do so. Trucks will occasionally pull over to let traffic by. The paint dries in two to three minutes. PennDOT is not responsible for most paint damage.

UPDATE: This work has been postponed: The two center lanes on both decks of the Fort Pitt Bridge will close overnight starting at 10 p.m. today for repairs to crash barriers, PennDOT announced. Work will be completed and the lanes reopened by 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Yep, it’s happening again. The outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel will close from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday. Delays on the detour route through Squirrel Hill topped 90 minutes at times last weekend. Tentative plans call for additional outbound closures May 10-13 and May 17-20.

Several weekend detours are planned on the Red Line of the Port Authority’s Light Rail Transit system to allow track repairs in Beechview. On Saturday and Sunday, inbound service will operate from South Hills Village to Overbrook Junction, then detour via the Blue Line route to South Hills Junction, where it will resume regular routing. Rail shuttles will operate between Overbrook Junction and Potomac and bus shuttles will serve stops from Potomac to South Hills Junction. Outbound service will operate normally. Inbound work and detours also are tentatively scheduled for April 27-28, May 11-12 and May 18-19.

PennDOT has closed the turnaround from Chateau Street to Beaver Avenue near the Route 65 Marshall Avenue interchange to begin construction of a new pedestrian ramp. The turnaround will be closed around the clock through May 31. The posted detour is to continue on Chateau to a left on Island Avenue, left on Preble Avenue, left on Branchport Street to Beaver.

A section of Mount Troy Road Extension between Mount Troy Road and Peoples Township Road in Ross has been closed. It is scheduled to reopen by the end of the day on Friday May 3. Drainage and pavement work will be performed.

Interstate 80 road work will cause lane restrictions in both directions east and west of the Grove City-Sandy Lake exit for the rest of the week.

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Let’s recap some of the obstacles you’ll face on the roads this weekend.

The big enchalada is the closure of the outbound Squirrel Hill Tunnel from 10 p.m. Friday (note the earlier start time) to 6 a.m. Monday. Our SHTSG (Squirrel Hill Tunnel Survival Guide) is here. The outbound tunnel will close again the following weekend during the same hours.

Remember that the continuing work in the Liberty Tunnels closes both of them overnight starting at 10 p.m. Friday and again Sunday.

Route 88 in Bethel Park will close from Churchill to Clifton roads from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday so crews can repair the wing wall on a small bridge that was damaged by a wayward vehicle.

The ramp from northbound Interstate 579-Crosstown Boulevard to Seventh Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh will close at 8 p.m. Friday for about 10 days.

Inbound Route 28 will be pinched to one lane from the 40th Street Bridge to East Ohio Street from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.

East Carson Street will be closed from Becks Run Road to Glass Run Road from 7 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday while the ancient pump station across from Page Dairy is demolished.

And PennDOT wanted to remind drivers on northbound Interstate 79 at the work zone near Exit 99 in Butler County to move to the left lane to make the crossover. The right lane is for exiting traffic only. Some of the through traffic has been staying in the right lane until it’s too late, then trying to back down the off-ramp to return to the mainline. Not cool.

Have a great weekend, and drive thoughtfully.

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