Construction is underway on a four-year, $101-plus million project to replace two bridges on the Turnpike's Northeast Extension with four separate structures -- two northbound and two southbound -- between the Lehigh Tunnel and the Mahoning Valley Interchange (Exit 74) in Carbon County.
 
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is replacing the 52-year old bridges over the Lehigh River and Canal, and over the nearby Pohopoco Creek with wider structures that are being built just upstream of the existing bridges. The work zone, which is located between mile markers 73 and 75, includes the new bridges as well as work on the Turnpike approaches that will tie-in the new spans to the Extension in the final year of construction.
 
The Walsh Construction Group, of Chicago, Il, is the general contractor on the $101,558,000.00 project.
 
The new bridges over the Lehigh River and the historic Lehigh Canal that parallels its eastern bank will be approximately 1,530-feet long and will rise approximately 75 feet over the waterways.
 
The new bridges over the Pohopoco Creek, located to the north of the Lehigh River span, will be approximately 1020-feet long and rise some 120-feet over the Creek.
 
Superstructures of both new bridges will be constructed of pre-stressed concrete beams with reinforced concrete decks 42-feet wide in each direction. They will include two 12-foot wide travel lanes, a six-foot wide inside shoulder and a 12-foot wide outside shoulder in each direction.

The existing Lehigh River crossing is a steel plate girder design. The Pohopoco bridge utilizes an under-deck truss design. Both are typical of bridges constructed in 1957, the year that they opened to traffic.
 
Borton-Lawson Engineering, of Wilkes-Barre, PA, is the design consultant for the new bridges .
 
Short-term lane closures in both directions will be in place periodically on the Turnpike during certain stages of  construction.
 
The new bridges are expected to be completed in late 2011. At completion, Turnpike traffic will be shifted onto the new spans and work will get underway to demolish the existing structures. All work on the project is scheduled to be completed in late 2012.
 
The project is being funded completly by the Turnpike Commission under its 10 Year Capital Improvement Plan that has been developed to address the need to rebuild and modernize the more than 600 miles of interstate highway -- and mainline structures -- under its jurisdiction.