After 57 years in the news business, there is one thing I can tell you with assurance: No matter how many times you run an important public service advisory, some are sure to complain that they didn't see it, criticize the news media for not informing the public and blame us for making their lives miserable.

Such will be the case later this month when the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission closes the northeast extension between the Mahoning Valley (Exit 74) and Lehigh Valley (Exit 56) interchanges for 55 hours resulting in an estimated 65-minute detour.The Times News has already run several articles, including some on the front page, with more to come. Other area news media have followed suit.The Turnpike Commission has posted signs along the toll road, taken out media ads and issued news releases. "We strongly advise motorists to steer clear of these areas during the detour," said Turnpike Commission CEO Mark Compton.While many Carbon County residents who live in the vicinity of the Mahoning Valley interchange use the turnpike to commute back and forth to their jobs in the Lehigh Valley and points south, the commission has scheduled the closing to minimize the impact on commuters.The 18-mile stretch of the highway will be closed from 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 29, until 4 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 2, during which time crews will deconstruct and replace the 131-foot-long bridge over Crackersport Road in Lehigh County. The bridge, built 60 years ago, carries about 30,000 vehicles a day.When you think about it, this is pretty amazing. This is one of the first projects to be undertaken by the commission through the Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) program. We hope it is as easy as A-B-C and that work crews do not encounter any surprise problems that might kick the closure into rush-hour traffic.Replacing a bridge while safely maintaining traffic can be a daunting engineering challenge and a headache for motorists, the commission said. Traditional bridge-replacement techniques usually involve multiple overnight turnpike closures, single-lane patterns, cattle chutes and other restrictions over two construction seasons. With ABC, impacts occur over a single long weekend. Instead of nine to 18 months of intermittent closings and detours, ABC limits traffic disruptions to a 55-hour period, beginning at 9 p.m. on a Friday through 4 a.m. the following Monday.Three years ago, Pennsylvania had the most structurally deficient bridges in the country. Now, it is third from the bottom, ahead of Rhode Island and Iowa, with some 4,500 bridges that still need repairs or replacement.Contractors with Road-Con Inc. of West Chester have been building the replacement bridge alongside the existing one for the past four months. Once the roadway is closed, contractors will dismantle the existing bridge, then slide the new one into its place. Traffic will be rerouted along Route 22, Route 33 and Interstate 80 between the Lehigh Valley and the Pocono interchanges.Those coming northbound to northern Lehigh and Carbon counties can take Airport Road North off Route 22 to Route 248.While southbound traffic is detoured onto I-80, the Northeast Extension will be open until the Mahoning Valley interchange. Southbound traffic can take Route 209 south to Route 248 to Airport Road South to Route 22.Carl DeFebo, the Turnpike Commission's public relations director, said the commission understands that it is asking a lot of the traveling public, which is a major reason why it is trying to get the word out to as many motorists as possible. "We're pulling out every imaginable P.R. and marketing tactic," DeFebo said.This project will be the second the commission will have undertaken using the ABC program. The first one is scheduled to start Sept. 22 involving replacement of a bridge on the East-West section of the turnpike in Beaver County.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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