A parade of 49 trucks hauling nearly 2,000 tons of concrete will travel through Greensburg on Saturday morning as part of a final push to complete construction of a two-story underground parking garage at the Westmoreland County Courthouse.

Main Street will be closed to traffic in front of the courthouse — between Otterman and Pittsburgh streets — starting just after midnight Saturday, April 1, as crews pour 980 cubic yards of concrete for the parking structure’s top level, county Operations Director Greg McCloskey said.

Officials expect the road to reopen by 4 p.m. as crews reach the final stages of the garage reconstruction project, which has dragged on for more than a year and was originally expected to be finished last October.

“We finally have a completion date for the project of June 20,” McCloskey said.

Starting at 1 a.m. Saturday, a pumper truck will arrive on scene, followed an hour later by dozens of trucks carrying the concrete that will make up the ceiling level of the two-story structure and serve as the support level for the plaza above the garage for a refurbished Courthouse Square.

Crews have spent the last several weeks installing rebar and tension cables along the top surface of the garage’s ceiling.

“Everyone is asking if it’s a heated deck. It’s not a heating system,” McCloskey said, noting the grid will serve as support for the new concrete.

Originally expected to be a six-month project, the construction will have taken about 15 months when finished. Delays were attributed to water infiltration at the site, discovery of bedrock that prompted additional design work and a need for larger columns to support the parking structure.

McCloskey said that the waterproofing of the garage’s ceiling is to begin April 7. A surface cement layer will be poured in early May, which will allow courthouse’s front plaza to reopen in June.

The refurbished plaza will feature benches, small trees in planters, shade sails and design elements including large lettering that spells out “Westmoreland” and a reproduction of the county flag engraved into the concrete surface.

Reconstruction of the underground parking garage was authorized last year after engineers recommended the two-story structure that was built more than four decades ago during the 1980s era courthouse expansion was in danger of collapse.

Inspectors concluded that decades of water damage had eroded support beams and concrete on the upper and lower parking levels. Commissioners closed the garage last month and hired Carl Walker Construction to rebuild it.

The Main Street entrance to the government complex was shifted several hundred feet to the formerly shuttered front door of the century-old courthouse building as the work began.

Despite the delays and additional work, officials said the project remains on budget.

“We don’t think it’s costing more than $7 million,” McCloskey said. The project is being paid for by American Rescue Plan funding distributed to the county during the covid pandemic.

Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich by email at rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .