Route 22 to reopen to two lanes eastbound as work progresses on Easton-Phillipsburg toll bridge

Some road work has been completed along Route 22 eastbound in the area of the Easton-Phillipsburg toll bridge with an aim to restore the highway to two lanes by next week.

Some road work has been completed along eastbound Route 22 near the Easton-­Phillipsburg toll bridge with an aim to restore the highway to two lanes by next week, according to the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

The bridge and adjoining sections of Route 22 have been restricted to a single lane since mid-­July as contractors have worked on the first stages of the $30 million toll bridge project.

The commission announced today the reopening of the right eastbound lane of Route 22 from Fourth Street in Easton to the eastern end of the Broad Street viaduct in Phillipsburg. Officials said the work was completed more than a week ahead of schedule, marking the first milestone in what is expected to be a weeklong process to open Route 22 to two lanes of traffic in each direction across the bridge.

If all goes well and weather cooperates, officials expect to open all lanes of Route 22 by sometime next week, commission Executive Director Joe Resta said in a statement.

"The contractor and everyone else involved are pushing to get this roadway reopened as soon as possible," Resta said. "It’s looking really good at this point that we will be able to beat this year’s work-­stage completion target date by at least a couple days.”

The commission also announced that the Second Street/Bushkill Street on-ramp to eastbound Route 22 will reopen and the left eastbound lane of Route 22 will reopen Friday after the peak morning commuting hours. This will mark the first time since July that two lanes of eastbound traffic will be open through the construction zone, according to the commission.

Westbound traffic will remain restricted to a single lane, allowing crews to remove concrete barriers and complete work at the toll plaza in Phillipsburg, according to the news release.

After crews finish final work at the toll plaza, the commission will open westbound Route 22 near the toll bridge to two lanes in each direction on Dec. 10 or 11. That will mark a substantial completion of the 2013 stage of the rehabilitation project, according to the toll bridge commission.

Once Route 22 and the toll bridge are reopened to two lanes of traffic in each direction, the commission expects no lane restrictions for about three months. A new set of single-lane restrictions are expected to go into effect by early March and remain in place until December 2014.

The 2014 work will focus primarily on westbound lanes and repainting the toll bridge’s truss.

While officials anticipated traffic backups and delays due to lane restrictions, the impact has been limited primarily to eastbound traffic during the morning commute and westbound traffic during the evening commute, according to the news release.

The project, expected to last until spring 2015, includes repairing the bridge deck, cleaning and painting the truss, installing a bridge drainage system and performing steel, concrete and masonry repair work.