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.
"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.
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.