Pittsburgh Regional Transit recently announced the start of construction for Phase 2 of its PRTX “University Line” project, a part of its rapid transit service. Phase 2 includes a massive restructuring of the bus routes running on Forbes and Fifth avenues.
Amy Silverman, PRT’s chief development officer, said the project will begin to break ground within the coming weeks and is expected to be completed sometime in 2027. The project moves all outbound lines from Downtown onto Forbes Avenue and inbound lines onto Fifth Avenue, which will eliminate the counterflow lane on Fifth Avenue.
Construction will start on Forbes Avenue and shift to Fifth Avenue once completed. Dedicated bus lanes will be created on the right side of Forbes Avenue and Fifth Avenue, painted in red.
Construction will also bring fenced lane closures along Forbes and Fifth Avenue that will likely increase traffic congestion. With construction on the lanes, sidewalks will also be fenced off, blocking some pedestrian flow.
“Pedestrian sidewalks will be open to the greatest extent possible,” Silverman said.
The project will also bring new two-way bike lanes that will run alongside the red bus lanes on the right side of the road between the road and the sidewalk. The bike lanes will include a combination of “candlesticks” and concrete barriers to protect cyclists from traffic flow.
A smaller physical barrier between vehicle traffic and the bus lanes will be added to prevent carpool drivers from stopping and dropping off passengers on the right side of traffic.
Phase 2 of the project will also roll out new, more sustainable buses. These include 54 “clean diesel” buses and 15 battery-powered buses. Bus lines P3 and 71 will become battery-powered, charging in the East Liberty and Wilkinsburg stations. These battery buses will be painted blue.
Future service changes will come to the P3 route because of the added battery-powered buses. Every other P3 trip will run from Swissville to Downtown, cutting the number of trips in half to permit for battery charging between trips. However, during busy hours, extra bus trips will be available.
Although Phase 1 is complete, more changes will come to the Downtown bus loop. It will have 5 new PTRX bus stations and 35 added traffic signals. These changes are expected to start in spring of this year.
With the bus lanes on Fifth and Forbes, many amenities will be added to stations for riders including 60-, 30- or 15-foot-wide awnings at bus stops. These stations will display real-time arrival information on digital screens. Schenley Plaza will also have a larger bus stop to account for the removal of the counterflow bus lane on Fifth.
With the adjustment of roads will come sidewalk improvements, including ADA-compliant curb ramps and lighting improvements. The sidewalks at intersections will be extended, shortening the time pedestrians need to be in the street.
As the dedicated bus lanes will remove the right lane, there will be merging space for drivers to merge at intersections and make the right turn. The counterflow bus lane on Fifth Avenue from Craft Avenue to Halket Street will become street parking. Additional areas may also become parking as construction continues.
These changes will affect the commutes of students moving around campus. Zahir Dyke, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, expects that the new bus routes will help with city traffic congestion.
“I think that will help a lot,” Dyke, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said. “I think the counterflow lanes, sometimes there is not enough space for the buses. There is usually a lot of congestion towards the end.”