Morning Roundup: Postal workers rally in Pittsburgh; road repairs in Penn Hills

Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Monday, March 24:

Postal workers rally in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh postal workers rallied Sunday in the California-Kirkbride neighborhood on Pittsburgh’s North Side — part of nationwide rallies to protect the U.S. Postal Service.

TribLive news partner WTAE said the rally was held by the local union of Branch 84 alongside the National Association of Letter Carriers in the North Shore, which represents 2,800 carriers in Allegheny, Washington and Beaver counties.

The rallies were in response to President Donald Trump’s proposal to move the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970.

If passed, USPS said about 640,000 people would be affected by these changes.

Slide repair work begins in Penn Hills

Leechburg Road, between Courtney Road and Sutton Drive, in Penn Hills was closed for road construction as of Monday morning, according to Pittsburgh traffic reports on Sigalert.

The slide remediation work, originally set to begin March 17, has started. The work also entails drainage improvements and shoulder and roadway reconstruction, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Traffic will be detoured east of the closure in the following manner: From Leechburg Road turn left onto Milltown Road; turn left onto Hulton Road; continue on Hulton Road; turn left onto Saltsburg Road; and follow Saltsburg Road back to Leechburg Road. For west of the closure, the detour is the same but in the opposite direction.

The around-the-clock closure is expected to remain in place through mid-April.