Various roadwork projects cause multiple traffic jams
Traffic is backed up on Route 248 past Palmerton on Thursday morning. BOB FORD/TIMES NEWS
Find yourself sitting in traffic longer than usual?
Motorists traveling in the area of Route 248 have, no thanks to a combination of several road projects currently underway in or around the same vicinity.
In recent weeks, a good many of them have found themselves stuck in rather lengthy traffic jams as work on several road projects continue.
On Wednesday drivers reported waiting nearly an hour in construction traffic.
Judy Steigerwalt posted her thoughts on Facebook.
“It is time for the PennDOT District 5 Executive and all his division managers to be replaced. They certainly cannot schedule projects and get projects completed in timely manner,” Steigerwalt posted.
“Why would one schedule a construction project on detour? Just look at bridge between Slatington and Walnutport being closed at the same time you schedule work at the intersection of 248, 145 and 873.”
She suggested road work should be done at night. “The driving public deserves more competent people in these management positions!”
One driver reported at 8:30 Wednesday morning it took 40 minutes to get to Palmerton from Bowmanstown exit.
With work starting at 7 a.m., the commute to work takes even longer. One person reported being struck in traffic on Route 248 for 25 minutes and she hadn’t even reached Slatington.
Carbon County posted at 9:30 today: “Heads Up ... 248 East Bound past Bowmanstown is a parking lot. AVOID the area.”
Contacted this morning, PennDOT spokesman Sean Brown said the traffic backups are most likely the result of a “confluence of several projects at once.”
“There was an issue two weeks ago (with the paving project),” Brown said. “Since then, I haven’t had any other complaints.”
Brown’s advice to motorists who find themselves caught up in heavy traffic congestion?
“We just have to ask for patience. We have some work to just coincide with each other, but it’s work that has to be done,” he said. “Hopefully traffic will return to normal shortly.”
Brown said there are several roadwork projects that are simultaneously underway, such as the Route 248 bridge in Carbon County; the Main Street Bridge in Slatington/Walnutport; and the paving project on Route 248 in Northampton County.
“It looks that the PA 248 resurfacing project is scheduled to be completed their daytime paving work by end of business tomorrow (Friday), weather dependent,” he said. “Any additional work will occur at night.”
He said the paving project on Route 248 in Northampton County should be finished shortly; the Slatington/Walnutport bridge remains on schedule to be open on or before Oct. 20; while the 248 bridge in Carbon County is still scheduled for a December completion.
Comments
What the peoples in charge don't get is that we understand there will be some pain but instead of telling us something that our eyes show us to be incorrect, they tell us something to shut us up as if that makes everything ok. Well it isn't ok because every day we travel that road, every day we are in a stoppage situation and most days there isn't anything going on at the work site. About 2 weeks ago the contractor placed a skid loader on the shoulder of east 248, it sat there for a few days, never moved, then disappeared. That isn't getting work done, that isn't moving the project forward.
When it takes you 40-50 minutes to go from Mountain Rd in Lehigh Twp to the Bowmanstown exit off 248 and the whole time you don't see a single worker moving dirt it tends to make your irritable. PennDOT might think that they are saving tax dollars to the wild acclaim of the population by awarding contracts that allow such behavior but they are just shifting the cost back to the tax payer in terms of time and fuel wasted because we are sitting in a backup for extended periods of time.