PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Road crews around the Pittsburgh area are going to be back at it with a vengeance this weekend after taking off last weekend for Labor Day. 

No fewer than four major roads are going to feel the construction pinch and KDKA’s John Shumway is here with what you need to know.

The Parkway East near the Birmingham Bridge

Starting tonight at 9 p.m., the inbound lanes of I-376 will be reduced down to a single lane from the area approaching the Birmingham Bridge to just beyond the bridge.

The ramp to the northbound Boulevard of the Allies will also be closed.

The lane restriction will be lifted by Monday morning. 

Route 51 in Jefferson Hills

A short stretch of the roadway beneath the Mon-Fayette Expressway is shutting down for another weekend. 

The road will be closed from Peters Creek Road to Worthington Avenue starting at 10 p.m. tonight. 

The PA Turnpike Commission is shutting down the road so that more bridge beams can be placed on the expressway high above Rt. 51. 

The marked detour is 15 miles long, but there is an easier route, as long as you’re not driving a truck. 

Interstate 79 from the Ohio River to Crafton

The seemingly endless project is about done for the year.

The northbound express lane in the southbound lanes of I-79 is closing tonight at 7 p.m.

By the end of the weekend, the crossovers will be gone and the restrictions will be lifted. 

Once the restrictions are lifted, I-79 will be back to its normal configuration with two lanes in each direction. 

The Pennsylvania Turnpike ramps at the Beaver Valley exit

While the weekend projects will be wrapping up by Monday morning, another will just be getting started.

Starting on Sunday night, the Pa. Turnpike’s westbound on-ramps and off-ramps at the Beaver Valley exit will be closing for a week of construction. 

The posted detour will direct drivers to use the New Castle exit, Fairline Boulevard, Rt. 351 to Koppel, and Rt. 18, and then the opposite direction if you’re wanting to go west on the Turnpike.

Will tonight’s rain impact the projects?

The rain might slow things a bit, but all of the projects are expected to have enough dry time to get their work done.

Things should be back to normal for the first three projects by Monday. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers will head to Atlanta on Sunday in hopes of claiming their first win of the season. The matchup is primed to be tough, with the Falcons looking like a much-improved team overall.

However, the Steelers still have some advantages they could exploit against the Falcons, who did not play their starters in the preseason. Here are the Steelers’ three keys to beating the Falcons:

1. Keep Grady Jarrett and Matt Judon in check

While the Falcons have a wonderful secondary with Jessie Bates, Justin Simmons, and A.J. Terrell, the Steelers will lose this one from the jump if they can not stop Grady Jarrett and Matt Judon from taking over the game up front. If you want, feel free to throw David Onyemata in here, too. The Steelers will have to keep Russell Wilson or Justin Fields upright to win this game. They need to give their wide receiver and run game a chance. Spencer Anderson is starting at left guard with rookie Zach Frazier at center. That matchup feels like one where Jarrett should dominate, but Anderson and the team feel up to the task.

“Well, he’s definitely a twitchy rusher,” Anderson said. “We know who he is and how great he is. But there, you focus on yourself and your technique. You play with good pad level and hand usage. You have to focus on yourself just as much.”

If the Steelers can run the ball between the tackles and force Atlanta’s linebackers to make plays, the Steelers might have a chance to ride Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren in this game. That has to be the plan, but it all starts up front.

2. Beanie Bishop balls out and proves himself

The Steelers, defensively, have one glaring hole in this game. Yet, it is actually a hole, or is it just an unproven player? Slot cornerback Beanie Bishop played well in the summer but looked just okay against the Houston Texans in his first starting spot in the preseason.

The Steelers know the Falcons will have an X-crossed right towards No. 31. Until he proves he can stop guys like Kyle Pitts, Drake London, and Darnell Mooney, the Falcons will go right to them in the slot.

“You never know. I just look at it like this. Like most things, we always prepare our guys so that if you’re a young guy out there, you just have to be ready. You will be tested and if you, if you handle the test, then they’ll go away from you. But if you don’t handle the test, you can expect it to keep coming,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said about Bishop.

The Falcons will try to attack him, but Bishop will not shy away from the challenge that the Falcons will likely bring him. If he can back up the challenge and show what he is made of, the Steelers can slow down this talented Falcons offense.

3. The ‘other eligibles’ step up

The Pittsburgh Steelers have two standouts in the passing game that will stick out in George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth. Yet, with Terrell, Bates, and Simmons in the secondary, they can erase the two of them through coverages. The Steelers might have to win their other matchups.

As stated above, the other obvious outlet is the running game. Warren and Harris figure to be the two big time players featured. However, the Steelers might need one big play from someone else. That could be Van Jefferson, Calvin Austin III, or someone else. The Steelers do not have the juice in the passing game to expect those two to be enough against a secondary like this on paper. Someone else has to step up, and if one player does, it might be enough to crawl the Steelers over the finish line.

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback Russell Wilson was limited in the team’s practice on Thursday afternoon with lingering effects from a calf injury, throwing a late curveball into the team’s plans just days before their Week 1 bout with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.

Wilson was seen around the team, though he did not have his helmet on and never took a snap throughout the day.

Head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters that Wilson’s calf tightened up on him and that he is visiting a doctor to have his situation further diagnosed.

Wilson did not appear on the team’s injury report that released following Wednesday’s practice and had been a full participant in recent days.

The Steelers are taking all of the proper precautions to ensure his injury doesn’t worsen ahead of his regular season debut with the team. Per Tomlin, however, there isn’t much concern from the team regarding his long-term availability.

Wilson initially suffered the injury during the Steelers’ conditioning test at the beginning of training camp that limited his involvement in team sessions and even opened the door for Justin Fields to come in and challenge him for the starting job.

Wilson sat out of the team’s opening preseson contest against the Houston Texans before playing a combined six series over their following two games against the Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions.

He was officially named the starting quarterback last week and was also awarded the offensive captaincy for Pittsburgh on Monday as a result.

Wilson is coming off of a 2023 campaign with the Denver Broncos where he threw for 3,070 yards, 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions with a completion percentage of 66.4%, the third-best rate of his 12-year career.

The Steelers signed Wilson to a one-year this offseason after the Broncos released him from a $245 million contract, taking on $85 million in dead money in the process.

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