Next week, PennDOT plans to resurface a bumpy Route 28 bridge in Etna where outbound traffic backs up daily.
The section of highway will be shut down for three nights between Wednesday and Sunday while workers rip out the bridge surface and replace it with new asphalt.
The 1,300-foot bridge carries outbound Route 28 traffic through the Etna and Sharpsburg areas. Rush hour traffic backs up there as the highway narrows to a single lane over the bridge. About 60,000 drivers travel Route 28 daily.
PennDOT plans to replace the bridge, possibly in 2007 or '08, but the worsening condition of its surface prompted the highway agency to make short-term fixes.
"We certainly don't want the traveling public to have to endure that," said Jeff Karr, PennDOT's assistant district executive for maintenance at the District 11 office in Collier. "This is only an interim measure. There is a future project planned."
Work is scheduled to take place Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday starting at 8 p.m. and lasting until 5 a.m. the following morning. If rain falls on one of the nights, work likely would be moved to another day.
The Etna and Sharpsburg exit off-ramps are to remain open. Inbound Route 28 traffic will not be affected.
Outbound traffic will be detoured to the Sharpsburg off-ramp, Exit 5A, onto the 62nd Street Bridge, left onto Butler Street, across the Highland Park Bridge and back onto Route 28 outbound.
