Drivers who depend on routes 248, 145, 873 and several other surrounding roads for work, business and shopping are on the receiving end of PennDOT’s mystifying road project scheduling.

Traffic tie-ups of an hour or more were reported during the past several weeks along these busy roads because of simultaneous road projects which made for bottlenecks and gridlock.

Predictably, we were told by a PennDOT spokesman that we need to be patient at times like this. This is really a cavalier attitude and the kind of response that does not give us a warm and fuzzy feeling about this state agency with which we have developed a love-hate relationship.

This is not the first time that PennDOT has scheduled parallel projects for the same or adjoining roads; it’s not the first time that it has failed to take into consideration emergencies in meeting supply and delivery timetables, weather delays and deadlines for completion of the work.

This summer and early fall, especially, nearly double the normal rainfall has played havoc with construction and paving schedules. This makes it all the more important to make sure that contiguous projects are spaced out.

I experienced the delay firsthand on Route 873 going over the Lehigh River to Route 248. I waited 30 minutes to travel a little more than three-quarters of a mile.

Some motorists were making some really dangerous maneuvers, trying to turn around and take an alternate route. Twice there were near-collisions with oncoming traffic.

That’s the thing in our go-go world: Many motorists don’t have patience.

Even those who do can’t be faulted for getting antsy after being delayed so long. When the tortoise can beat your vehicle going from point A to point B, you know there are problems.

PennDOT engineers are supposed to be the professionals. How does the simultaneous scheduling of the closing of the Slatington-Walnutport bridge and the repaving project on Route 248, the official detour for the Main Street bridge closing, make sense?

And this does not even take into consideration construction on the Route 248 bridge near the Palmerton exit, which limits traffic to one lane in each direction of the four-lane highway.

The PennDOT spokesman admits that there are projects that coincide with each other, but “they have to be done.”

OK, but why must they be done together? That is where we ask the powers that be to spread out the projects.

We know that even one construction project is going to gum up the works, but when you add another in its proximity, it’s a prescription for mayhem.

The spokesman told Times News reporter Terry Ahner last week that he hadn’t gotten any recent complaints. One resident suggested a reason — past complaints have fallen on deaf ears.

If the spokesman had been traveling on any of the affected routes during the past several weeks, he could have experienced firsthand what we have been facing.

And the pain is not over. PennDOT road crews will soon be resurfacing other parts of Route 248 in Lehigh Township eastward through East Allen and Moore townships to the borough of Bath.

Officials from the four affected municipalities have been invited to a PennDOT-led meeting on Oct. 10 to lay out plans for the projects. I am strongly suggesting that these municipal leaders push hard for night construction to avoid the long daytime delays we have been witnessing.

Next year, PennDOT plans to replace two bridges along Route 248 in Moore Township.

PennDOT maintains a “customer care” online site to handle complaints on a county-by-county basis.

I suggest we all fill out a form and give PennDOT an earful. The address is: customercare.penndot.gov.

The site advises: “Please refrain from using derogatory language when submitting a concern.” As much as we might be tempted to do so — that’s how angry we are — let’s keep our cool.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com