Drivers should expect potential delays and detours as contractors upgrade two intersecting interstate highways in Lackawanna County during the next five years, officials said Monday.
The $126 million improvement of road surfaces, bridges and entrance and exit ramps around where interstates 81 and 84 meet is expected to rank as the second costliest in the regional state Department of Transportation office’s history.
The construction follows what was the second costliest project in the region’s history — the $119 million restoration of two massive bridges on Interstate 84/380 in Dunmore and construction of new exits for Route 435.
“The sequencing was planned that way,” District Executive Jonathan Eboli said. “Really, the project is necessary, because we continue to see (concrete) slabs that are deteriorating in this section, and that's the reason that the project progressed forward.”
Almost 50,000 vehicles a day travel through this corridor. The 1990s construction of the Casey Highway remains tops in cost, $475 million.
Two lanes of travel
As usual, PennDOT plans to maintain two travel lanes in both directions on the interstates as they restore adjacent lanes, Eboli said.
Some ramps will close, creating detours, said John Pivovarnik, the project’s assistant construction engineer.
“Where we can maintain (an open) lane we're going to maintain, but some ramps are narrow and we'll have to detour,” Pivovarnik said. “And then there's some ramps that we may be able to maintain car traffic, but since it's going to be a little bit tighter, we may have to detour trucks.”
The road reconstruction
The project started Monday, with tree trimming also requiring a lane closure. Full-blown road reconstruction will begin in April, Eboli said.
Crews will work first on the two miles on Interstate 81 north and south between the Biden Expressway and Drinker Street interchanges. The job also entails upgrading the road surface on Interstate 84/380 from where it meets the I-81/Casey Highway interchange and the Route 435 interchange.
“The sequencing is really going to be from the Biden Expressway to Drinker Street (first),” Eboli said. “That will happen between 2026 and 2029 in both directions. Interstate 84 work will not occur until 2029 and that will take us through the completion of the project in 2031.”
Work on I-81 north will mostly mean preserving pavement. That means patching, replacing joints that connect slabs of concrete highway and sealing the joints, Pivovarnik said.
“So that can happen anytime between 2026 and 2031. We are having preliminary meetings with our contractor now and working on that sequencing to see exactly when the work north of Drinker Street will happen,” Eboli said.
The project includes the Drinker and Tigue street ramps and ramps connecting the interstates in all directions. The ramp closures should take place overnight, Eboli said.
Bridges, walls, barriers
The contractors will also fix bridges and retaining walls and update barriers. They will also install a modern intelligent transportation system with electronic message boards and additional highway cameras.
“We have some cameras, but we'll have a couple more where we can see a little bit further and monitor traffic,” Pivovarnik said.
Eboli said the project will take five years because PennDOT wants to maintain two lanes of travel in each direction.
“We could certainly construct this faster, but we would have major backups in an area where the average daily traffic is approaching 50,000 cars a day,” he said. “We would see instantaneous backups if we went down to one lane.”
The contractors are Cottle’s Asphalt Maintenance, of Everett, and Kriger Construction, of Dickson City.
