The Northeast Extension of Route 476 reopened to traffic at 1:50 a.m., more than two hours ahead of schedule.

Todd Leiss, traffic incident management coordinator of the turnpike commission, sent an email to first response agencies this morning announcing that the Northeast Extension, I-476 had reopened between the Lehigh Valley Interchange and the Mahoning Valley Interchange.

“The contractor has successfully completed the work on the Accelerated Bridge Project ahead of schedule,” Leiss said.

The turnpike Northeast Extension was shut down at 9 p.m. Friday between the Lehigh Valley and Mahoning Valley interchanges, while the two bridge expanses over Crackersport Road in South Whitehall Township were demolished and replaced.

“The turnpike used a proven engineering technique called Accelerated Bridge Construction that allows workers to replace a bridge in one weekend rather than a year or more of construction,” said Kathleen Walters, public information manager for the commission.

“This successful bridge replacement is the second ABC project for the Turnpike, following a September project in Beaver County.”

The technique used requires the contractor to construct the new bridges parallel to the existing roadway along with supports that will allow the new bridges to be slid into place once the old structures are removed.

By Saturday evening the commission released a video showing that the new bridges had already been slid into place and were in the process of being connected to the existing roadway.

“Crews worked very diligently over the last 50 hours to reopen the roadway ahead of schedule. The southbound lanes opened at 1 a.m. and the northbound lanes opened at 2 a.m.,” said Walters. “Every construction task involved in the process was accomplished smoothly and ahead of time.”

The project meant that a lengthy detour was needed, sending traffic up to 67 miles to reconnect with the turnpike.

The work was initially planned for Sept. 29, but was postponed because a problem was detected.

There were no reports in the area of lengthy delays along the detour route in Monroe County, although some of the back roads experienced higher volumes of traffic as motorists attempted to bypass the detour route.

“It has been a very long weekend and again, it would not have been successful without your support,” Leiss said, thanking agencies for their cooperation.