PITTSTON — An interchange and busy road that leads to dozens of businesses in the Wyoming Valley is scheduled to stay closed until Monday morning.
The closure will allow PennDOT to do construction on Interstate 81 bridges that are being replaced.
So while that’s being done this weekend, Route 315 is closed and so is the southbound Pittston exit.
PennDOT maintains this is the best option for drivers, but businesses say a weekend with a major road and exit closed is burning their bottom line and impacting their employees, too.
Construction crews are scheduled to remove the northbound and southbound beams over Route 315 near the Dupont/ Pittston exit of Interstate 81 this weekend. And to do it, PennDOT is shutting down the exit for Pittston on I-81 southbound (175a) and the part of Route 315 under the interstate bridges.
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That’s the section of Route 315 that Kym Bereltteer of Wilkes-Barre takes to get to work at Uncle Joe’s pizza near Pittston.
“I have to sit through traffic. It’s going to be rough, especially because we’re open till 10. But I’ll have to deal with it!” Bereltteer said.
While she’s worried about getting in to work, Eric Friedman of Bobby O’s, located just up the road, is worried about getting food deliveries out.
“We can’t get to Laflin, you know, we can’t up 315 to the hospital without long detours ourselves. And our delivery time is always doubled in that area,” Friedman said.
The closing of part of Route 315 isn’t only affecting businesses in the Pittston area, but other businesses miles away, like Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs.
“Longterm benefits means sometimes we have to take a little pain in the short term, and you know, we appreciate all the hard work that our state employees do for us,” said Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs president Mike Bean.
PennDOT officials say crews will be working around the clock to finish the work before Monday morning’s commute.
“You have to give yourself a little bit of extra time so you don’t get frustrated, so you’re not that tight on your schedule,” said PennDOT official Patty Fritsky.
Back at Bobby Oh’s, Eric Freidman says PennDOT should have considered small businesses before closing down a main road.
“Just making it worse on everybody in the area. PennDOT doesn’t care about local businesses, they’ll just close a local highway!”
PennDOT is scheduled to reopen the road before Monday morning’s commute.
If you are feeling lucky and want to go to Mohegan Sun this weekend and are coming from north, remember, the Pittston exit is closed.
Here’s the planned detour to get there:
- Take Exit 170B to merge onto PA-309 N toward Wilkes-Barre
- Take Exit 1 for PA-309 BUS S/PA-315 N toward Wilkes-Barre/Dupont
- Use any lane to turn left onto PA-315 N/Hwy 315 N
- After 1.7 miles the casino will be on the left
