NORTHUMBERLAND – A major road reconstruction project will take place in Northumberland in April of 2017 and PennDOT is working to decide how traffic will be redirected.
Matt Beck is PennDOT Assistant District Plans Engineer and talked about the Norry project, “That project involves a reconstruction of Route 147 and portions of Route 11 in Northumberland borough. That involves removing the existing pavement between the curbs a couple of feet down and completely reconstructing the pavement. It also includes improvements at the Duke and Water Street and King and Water Street intersections, to help improve safety and reduce congestion.”
While work is being done, traffic will need to be detoured, but they are trying to cause as little inconvenience as possible, so options are being weighed, “Our plan is to shut down short portions of Duke Street and redirect traffic, or reroute traffic, using one detour for cars and another detour for trucks. You know we realize that’s going to be an inconvenience, given the traffic volumes and all the locations that need access along Route 147, but we are working to balance those impacts as best we can.”
He says keeping those closures short will help with that. He says they are considering the public’s concerns when making decisions about the project, “Really we are in that stage where we are trying to identify all the concerns that work is going to cause and the impacts that the work is going to have and we are working to figure out the best plans to address all of them and balance them as best we can.” You can hear more from Beck and Dave Thompson of PennDOT from WKOK’s On The Mark program online at www.wkok.com.
