June 22, 2016
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) Rapid Bridge Replacement Project begins in Luzerne County, with the reconstruction of the SR 8005 E Ramp crossing over I-80 WB in Butler Township.
Staged construction is scheduled to begin the week of June 27, with the single lane of traffic open during construction. A short-term detour of WB I-80 will be used for occasional nighttime work between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. with traffic detoured to I-81 NB, SR 3007 and SB I-81. The work is expected to be complete by November, and will be performed by Clearwater Construction. The crossing was built in 1965 and averages over 5,900 vehicles a day.
The bridge replacements are part of the Rapid Bridge Replacement Project, a Public-Private Partnership (P3) between PennDOT and Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners (PWKP) under which PWKP will finance, design, replace and maintain the bridges for 25 years. The P3 approach will allow PennDOT to replace the bridges more quickly while achieving significant savings and minimizing impact on motorists.