Construction crews have disassembled the 60-year-old bridge carrying the Pennsylvania Turnpike’s Northeastern Extension (Interstate 476) over Crackersport Road in South Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, and the effort to methodically slide the new bridge segments into place was successful.

For the past eight months, crews have been working to build the new bridge segments on both sides of the existing bridge using a proven engineering technique called Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC). This enables the Turnpike to replace the four-lane bridge in one weekend rather than over a year or more of construction.

A nearly 40-mile stretch of the Northeastern Extension in Lehigh and Carbon counties will remain closed until 4 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 16. Northbound traffic is being detoured at the Lehigh Valley Interchange (#56), and southbound through traffic is being detoured at the Pocono Interchange (#95). Local travelers heading southbound can drive past Exit #95/Pocono and continue to exit at #87/Route 903 “E-ZPass Only” or at #74/Mahoning Valley. The Turnpike is closed southbound at Mahoning Valley.

The 131-foot- long Crackersport Road bridge at milepost 57.66 opened to traffic on Nov. 7, 1957, and today carries roughly 30,000 vehicles per day.