Morning Roundup: South Side patrol figures; road work projects to impact traffic

Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, July 18:

Latest South Side patrol figures released

Pittsburgh police officers on the bureau’s South Side Entertainment Patrol made seven arrests along East Carson Street over the weekend. The special patrol was launched last summer to tamp down crime and improve public perception in one of the city’s leading entertainment districts.

From last Wednesday through Sunday, officers also issued 26 non-traffic citations, made 17 traffic stops and recovered three guns, police said.

The patrol made more than 180 arrests, issued 1,162 nontraffic citations and initiated nearly 530 traffic stops in the first year of its focused efforts.

Officers from the city’s Zone 3 station, which covers the South Side, first launched a test run of the special patrol in 2013. The covid-19 pandemic thwarted a second effort, which started in 2019.

PennDOT cautions road work projects to affect traffic

Utility work, surveying and pavement marking will impact vehicle traffic from Pittsburgh’s North Hills out to Beaver County, beginning on some roads Tuesday, PennDOT officials have announced.

Utility work was slated to start Tuesday, weather permitting, on Babcock Boulevard and Freeport and Siebert roads in Harrison and Ross, officials said. Single-lane restrictions will be in effect in each direction weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Aug. 16.

Starting Tuesday, lane restrictions also will be in effect from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on five Beaver County roads, including Big Knob Road in New Sewickley and Engle Road in Ohioville and Industry. Crews will be installing pavement markers there through Aug. 9.

Shoulder restrictions will be in effect Wednesday through Friday on Interstate 376 in Pittsburgh and Green Tree. Surveyors are set to work on the highway between the Parkway West’s Parkway Center Drive and Route 19 exits.

Starting Wednesday, traffic will be restricted to a single lane on part of Bennett Street in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood as a contractor conducts sewer line repairs and manhole installations. That work is expected to continue through Aug. 13.