Traffic, Transportation Changes Occur in Oakland to Prepare for Construction of University of Pittsburgh's Biomedical Science Tower 3

PITTSBURGH—Oakland will begin to experience traffic and transportation changes on and around Fifth Avenue next week, as workers prepare to start construction of the University of Pittsburgh's new Biomedical Science Tower 3 at a site between Darragh and Lothrop streets.

Beginning May 28, the north lane of Fifth Avenue will be closed from west of the entrance to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh—starting at the Falk Clinic at 3601 Fifth Ave.—to Darragh Street. The lane will be closed until the spring of 2005. For the time being, construction will not disrupt two-way traffic on Lothrop Street.

Today, workers from the Allegheny County Port Authority began moving the area's Fifth Avenue bus stop from between Lothrop and Darragh streets to an area west of Darragh Street, in front of UPMC Montefiore Hospital.

Traffic signs advising motorists of the construction zone will be installed May 27 along Fifth Avenue and side streets in the area running from Bigelow Boulevard to Darragh Street.

The $188 million limestone-and-glass building, designed by Boston's Payette Associates Inc., will house the laboratories of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, along with state-of the art biological research laboratories and specialized laboratories for structural biology, synthetic chemistry, computational biology, and genomics and proteomics facilities.

Initial occupancy of the building is scheduled for the spring of 2005; the entire tower should be occupied by the winter of 2005.

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