Without a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the refurbished Sugar Notch Bridge reopened Tuesday night.
Ed Lewis | Times Leader
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The Sugar Notch Bridge crossing Route 29 is seen as it looked in April 2020.
Ed Lewis | Times Leader
SUGAR NOTCH — Those five- to seven-minute traffic signals seemed like an eternity waiting to cross the single lane bridge near Sugar Notch.
All that came to an end Tuesday night when crews fully reopened both lanes on the bridge after a nearly two-year $4.4 million rehabilitation project to replace the deck.
Crews from Minichi, Inc., of Dupont, began rehabbing the bridge in December 2019, when traffic was directed to one lane controlled by traffic signals on either side of the span over Route 29.
Motorists waited as much as five to seven minutes as traffic on each side of the bridge took turns to cross. A frequent occurrence was motorists not waiting for the green traffic signal and proceeding across the single lane bridge, only to be faced with approaching traffic.
Construction involved two phases to replace the crumbling bridge deck.
During the first phase to replace one side of the bridge, construction was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
One side was completed in September 2020, and construction stopped in October 2020 due to the approaching winter season and a contract with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation requiring a width of 14 feet for the only open traffic lane needed for snow plows.
Construction resumed to replace the other side of the bridge deck in April.
The bridge is heavily used by tractor-trailer drivers and employees of various businesses and warehouses in Hanover Industrial Estates to access Interstate 81 from Route 29.
Crews from American Asphalt milled and paved the roadway on either side of the bridge late last week and completed the work Monday afternoon. After lines were painted, the bridge reopened at about 6 p.m. Tuesday.