NORTHUMBERLAND -- Two weeks from today, the day after school ends in the Shikellamy School District, the state Department of Transportation will shut down Route 11 from Duke Street to the Barry King Bridge, forcing a detour for the more than 16,000 vehicles a day that cross the bridge entering or leaving the borough.
The 21-day closure will permit contractor Kinsley Construction Inc. to rebuild the road, which has been seriously damaged by traffic. With Route 11 closed, all traffic that normally crosses the Barry King Bridge will instead be routed through Sunbury.
Traffic will be detoured via Route 147 to the Veterans Memorial bridge in Sunbury and back to Route 11. During the detour, the Veterans Bridge, which normally carries about 26,000 vehicles a day, will be crossed more than 40,000 times every 24 hours, according to PennDOT traffic maps.
Clayton Krieger, who owns North Branch Auto Sales, just off the bridge, objects to the shutdown. He's called PennDOT and his elected representatives, but so far has received no satisfaction.
"They said they were going to shut down traffic in one direction at a time, but now they want to close the whole thing," he said. "I'd rather be half dead for 36 days than totally dead for 21 days."
Krieger said the original plan was to shut down traffic in one direction at a time while the road was repaired, but now the plan is to close the road completely.
"When I complained to PennDOT, they seemed to be telling me tough," he said. "I guess this is a done deal."
Jake Shreck, design project manager for PennDOT in Montoursville, said both partial and complete closures were considered for the project. A partial shutdown, which would have allowed southbound traffic to continue while northbound traffic was detoured, was vetoed because it would have taken at least twice as long and would still have required three temporary detours while concrete was poured.
Instead, the road will be shut down completely from June 2-23. Kinsley Construction will remove the damaged concrete from the railroad underpass to Duke Street and replace it in a $605,000 contract. The contractor will work six days a week, Shreck said, and will be required to pay damages if the work is not completed by June 23. The existing concrete pavement will be demolished and removed, and new concrete will be poured.
Shreck said the sidewalks and curbs in the area will also be repaired and replaced as needed. The sidewalk on one side or the other of Route 11 must remain open to provide access to Pineknotter Park, he said.
Brian Luden, who coordinates several baseball leagues that use the park, said Monday he was shocked to learn the road would be shut down for three weeks.
"We haven't had any time to prepare for this," he said. "We'll have to walk in. We can't reschedule our games."
Luden said Little League, Junior Legion, Legion and an adult league use the fields.
"I've made several calls to PennDOT, but no one has returned my calls," he said. "I appreciate what PennDOT does, but they work for us, the taxpayers. I think this is pretty underhanded."
Later this summer, after the Route 11 project is completed, another contractor will repave Route 147 from the Route 11 intersection north to Route 405 in West Chillisquaque Township.
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