Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Aug. 2:
Route 51 detours begin
Demolition work started late Thursday on a poorly rated bridge in Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington neighborhood.
Part of Route 51, also known as Saw Mill Run Boulevard, closed as crews began work to raze the Saw Mill Run Boulevard bridge near Woodruff Street. Detours are in effect.
Parts of the roadway will remain closed for much of August as crews demolish — not implode — the bridge, PennDOT officials told TribLive news partner WTAE.
The city-owned span span, built in 1930 and referred to by the city as the Parking Lot Bridge, is used solely by the adjacent Rohrich GM Parts Center.
City officials last summer called for the bridge to be torn down because of its subpar conditions and concerns that pieces of the structure could break loose and fall onto traffic traveling on Saw Mill Run Boulevard.
Wabash Properties LLC, which owns the land Rohrich occupies near the span, filed a lawsuit to force the city to repair the bridge rather than raze it. A Commonwealth Court judge last month denied a petition to stop demolition.
$1 million lottery ticket sold in North Strabane
Someone got lucky to the tune of $1 million thanks to a lottery ticket in Washington County.
The Pennsylvania Lottery confirmed that a winning ticket in the “Instant $1,000,000 Jackpot” game was sold at a Sheetz at 2401 Washington Road in North Strabane, according to TribLive news partner WTAE.
The winner’s name was not revealed.
The store, situated between Interstate 79 and Route 19 near Canonsburg, receives a $5,000 bonus for selling the ticket, WTAE reported. The scratch-off game costs $20 to play.
“Scratch-Offs are distributed at random, meaning the Pennsylvania Lottery, and its retailers do not know where winning tickets will be sold,” the lottery said in a prepared statement. “The lottery learns where winning tickets are sold only after a prize has been claimed.”
The same Sheetz location sold a $3 million winning scratch-off ticket in 2022.
A $30 holiday-themed scratch-off lottery ticket won an area woman $3 million. The Pennsylvania Lottery presented Kim Maurer a check in the middle of the Washington County Sheetz.
“A whole new life that I know nothing about. I’ll probably work less, vacation more, spend more time with my grandkids,” Maurer said.
Justin Vellucci is a TribLive reporter covering crime and public safety in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County. A longtime freelance journalist and former reporter for the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press, he worked as a general assignment reporter at the Trib from 2006 to 2009 and returned in 2022. He can be reached at jvellucci@triblive.com.