A $1.9-million construction project to repair the bridge that carries Crooked Hill Road over Interstate 81 in Susquehanna Township, Dauphin County, gets underway on Monday, March 4. The project consists of bridge preservation work that includes deck repairs and a latex overlay, repairs to barrier and guiderail, bearing replacement, replacement of the expansion dams (i.e., bridge joints),repainting the steel members of the superstructure, and minor superstructure and substructure repairs.
The bridge will remain open to traffic during the project. However, motorists will initially encounter short-term single-lane traffic restrictions over the bridge with flaggers assisting them through the work zone. So as not to adversely impact the morning commuting hours, no traffic lane restrictions will occur during this initial stage of work between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. Within a few weeks, however, temporary traffic signals will be installed for a long-term single-lane traffic restriction. The traffic signals will control the flow and direction of traffic in a single lane across the bridge on a round-the-clock basis for much of the year while the project is underway. Approximately 6,000 vehicles cross this bridge on a daily basis.
The bridge rehab project will also require traffic lane restrictions on I-81 underneath the bridge and also on the ramps between I-81 and Route 22/322. When they occur, these lane restrictions and ramp restrictions (including occasional ramp closures and detours) will be limited to the overnight hours between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Though Crooked Hill Road is a township road, the bridge over I-81 is owned and maintained by PennDOT. The seven-span structure was built in 1974. PennDOT has contracted with the Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to conduct the bridge rehabilitation project at a cost of $1,929,370. The project is scheduled to wrap up by mid-October of this year. This type of rehabilitation is also known as bridge preservation work which is intended to extend the service life of the bridge.
