LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — Road closed signs, traffic cones, and construction vehicles, it is its very own season here in Pennsylvania.
"It's our prime time now, getting ready to kick off construction season," said Jessica Ruddy, PennDOT.
Now that construction season is getting underway here in PA, PennDOT's traffic bulletin is back this week after temporarily being suspended over the winter months. The list can be found on PennDOT's website, it can be accessed 24/7 and is updated in real time.
The traffic bulletin is separated by county. Here in Lackawanna County, you can see all of the short term projects and the highways and roads where they are happening.
"We then include the municipality, if it is a restriction or a closure, we include the time of work that is being done. We include the start date, the end date and the time," Ruddy said.
For example, in Lackawanna County Interstate 81 in Scranton and Interstate 84 in Mount Cobb will both have lane restrictions next week for sweeping. The traffic bulletin lists the restrictions from Monday, April 1 through Friday, April 5, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. You can see all of the lane restrictions starting next Monday, for sweeping, patching, crack sealing and litter pickup all over Northeastern PA.
The traffic bulletin also includes the longer term plans and projects like the bridge replacement here in Lackawanna County at Route 435 and Interstate 84, projects both new this year and the ones that have already started.
"We'll have over 100 projects. We'll be working in all 6 counties in district 4. We will be doing 140 miles of roadway improvements, 175 bridges will be either preserved or built, we're going to to have 550 miles of seal coat and also over 900 miles of crack sealing, so we are busy," Ruddy explained. She added, "101 projects starting and another 99 carrying so we have 200 projects that will be going on this year alone. That doesn't include weather events that we don't know about yet."
PennDOT will be holding a press conference this Tuesday at 1pm detailing the construction season and all of those longer term projects that are planned for the spring and summer months and the traffic bulletin is obviously a great way to avoid lane closures and traffic during your morning and afternoon commutes, but it's also a safety thing too... it's always good to be aware of where crews will be working.