Ah, April. The time for showers... and weekend repairs to the Parkway West, Parkway East and the Fort Pitt Bridge.

Weekend motorists will be playing the amusing orange traffic cone-dodging game along the highways between Interstate-79 in the west and Churchill in the east as work crews jump from section to section of the roads doing resurfacing and heavy repair work.

The construction begins this month and continues through the autumn and could affect as many as 50,000 motorists at a time.

Refreshing "breaks" will be seen during five peak traffic weekends -- the Pittsburgh Marathon, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, the Three Rivers Regatta celebration and Labor Day -- during which PennDOT won't allow restrictions.

Yet every other weekend still promises traffic jams. Construction is scheduled during 10 weekends while the Pirates are in town, three weekends when the Steelers play at home, and during the Vintage Grand Prix and events at Station Square, the Civic Arena, Heinz Hall and other visitor and entertainment venues.

The busy summer season is expected to be the worst of the lot, since almost every weekend in June, July, and August has something big going on.

The work will begin on the Parkway West near I-79 on April 17, and the traffic problems will switch around as work zones change for as many as 22 weekends.

In other words, now would be a good time to purchase that "book on tape" you've always wanted to get.

Visit the OnTV Bulletin Archive.