EAST PENNSBORO TOWNSHIP, CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. -- Work continues on getting Route 11/15 in East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County near Marysville back open to commuters.
Anyone who drives that route may be wondering if it will reopen anytime soon.
Much work still needs to be done on the ground, but Thursday, crews took to the sky.
There's a lot of buzz in the air about the construction progress on Route 11/15.
Project Manager Brian Moore said "People across the river on 322 can see this helicopter over here, on 81 going across the bridge, so we want to make sure that people are not rubbernecking, keeping an eye on traffic, don't be looking up at the sky."
Right now, crews have their eyes on the rocks and containing the hillside within a steel web of wire mesh.
"It's definitely not easy, but the companies that are doing this, the company from Oregon that's doing the rock, the slope work and the helicopter, this is what they do. It's more, I'm not going to say business as usual, but it's something they're used to doing. And they do make it look easy sometimes," Moore said.
At a cost of nearly $17 million, and with two slopes to cover a Mike apart, 11 and 15 aren't the only numbers associated with this project.
"The rock slopes are being covered 20,000 square yard of steel mesh, several hundred holes drilled into the mountain to attach the mesh to the mountain," Moore said.
Getting the road open soon could be a bonus for commuters as well as contractors.
"The contractor can earn $50,000 for every day they finish before the 90-day closure up to a cap of $2 million, and those incentives are a bonus to them, but they also have to spend money to earn that. You know there's extra cost associated with additional men, additional equipment," Moore said
"Schedule is a major concern for us, with the incentives that were put in there, PennDOT has made it clear that opening the road as quickly as possible is of utmost concern. So, schedule is another thing we're closely monitoring," Moore added.
Wrapping up a project like this one, as fast as possible, isn't the only concern for the contractor.
"This one in particular, where you have a 200 foot slope, you have potential for stuff falling from that height. You know we all wear hard hats but a rock falls 200 feet, a hard hat is not going to do you a whole lot of good, so safety is a big concern," Moore said.
The Route 11/15 Rock slope project is scheduled to be completed by July 30th, but with a $50,000 a day incentive to finish early, time is money earned for some, and saved for others.