Northeast Extension, Route 309 to close for several days in September

The Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeast Extension and a section of Route 309 will be closed during the first weekend in September as road crews replace a bridge that crosses over Route 309 in South Whitehall Township.

The closure, stretching from the Allentown Interchange on I-476 to the Mahoning Valley Interchange, begins at 9 p.m. Sept. 6 and runs until 4 a.m. Sept. 9. A posted detour will reroute both northbound and southbound traffic to Route 33 during construction.

The around-the-clock construction of the bridge also means there will be no emergency services access from milepost 56 to milepost 74 without implicit permission from the Turnpike traffic incident management coordinator.

Route 309 between Chapmans Road to Snowdrift Road will be shuttered during the work. That work will run from 7 p.m. Sept. 6 to 6 a.m. Sept. 9 with a posted detour sending drivers to Route 100.

If bad weather prevents roadwork, the construction and road closures will take place the following weekend, Sept. 13-16.

A Federal Highway Administration report on the bridge from August 2017 shows no outstanding issues with the structure. A message left with a Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission spokesman for more information about the construction did not receive a response Thursday.

The closures come almost two years after another shutdown of all Northeast Extension traffic between the Lehigh Valley and Mahoning Valley interchanges. The Turnpike Commission dismantled and replaced a 131-foot overpass over Crackersport Road in October 2017, detouring drivers through Interstate 80, Route 33 and Route 22.