Closures to disrupt traffic at 3 locations

Nighttime lane closures will slow traffic on Route 422 in three separate locations this week.

One is in the Valley Forge area and two are in the Pottstown area, PennDOT has announced.

Closer to home, closures will take place along the new bridge over the Schuylkill River between the Stowe and Route 100 exits.

Route 422 westbound will be closed and detoured on Tuesday, July 5 from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. July 6 for painting traffic lines and moving concrete barriers.

During that closure, westbound drivers will be detoured onto Route 100 north to westbound High Street, which becomes the Ben Franklin Highway when it crosses into Berks County.

On the morning of Wednesday, July 6, west- bound Route 422 traffic will be moved onto the newly constructed bridge.

That night, from 9 p.m. until 4 a.m. Thursday, July 7, traffic on Route 422 east will be closed for milling, paving, traffic line painting and moving concrete barriers.

Eastbound drivers will be detoured in Berks County, onto Benjamin Franklin Highway, which becomes High Street when it crosses into Montgomery County, to Route 100 south, which they will then take to eastbound Route 422.

Eastbound traffic is expected to be shifted into a single lane on the new Route 422 bridge by July 15.

J.D. Eckman, the contractor, will then begin the demolition of the existing east-bound Route 422 bridge, and begin construction of a new eastbound bridge.

And just to make it even more fun, Route 422 drivers between the Stowe and Route 100 exits will face traf- fic stoppages in both directions Thursday, July 7 and Friday, July 8 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for re-surfacing the cross-over lanes.

It’s all part of the $36.2 million project to build new Route 422 bridges over the Schuylkill River in that section of Route 422.

During the same period — Thursday, July 7 into Friday, July 8— the right westbound lane between the Sanatoga and Armand Hammer Boulevard interchanges will also be closed, and also for construction on a bridge over the Schuylkill River, but this one is a completely different bridge.

The right lane will close at 10:30 p.m. Thursday and re-open at 9 a.m. Friday, July 8 as part of the $73.3 million project to build new Route 422 bridges over the Schuylkill, but a few miles east of the other bridge.

The fun continues further down the road in the Valley Forge area.

During the same days that there will be road closures in the Pottstown area — Tuesday July 5 through Thursday, July 8 — drivers will encounter lane closures between the Trooper Road and First Avenue exists, according to PennDOT.

Both eastbound and westbound Route 422 will be reduced to one lane between the two interchanges “for median shoulder excavation and paving.”

The eastbound closure will occur from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. the next morning.

The westbound closures will take place from 9 p.m. to 6a.m. the following morning.

This work is part of a $97.4 million project to build new, wider bridges over the Schuylkill river, Norfolk Southern Railroad, South Trooper Road and Schuylkill River Trail in West Norriton, Upper Merion and Lower Providence.

This project is scheduled to be completed in May of 2020. The contractor for this job is also J.D. Eckman. Inc.