Parts of roads to close for months during southern section work

Marcia Moore, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·2 min read

Jul. 8—Portions of Snyder County roads will be closed for several months during construction of the southern section of the Central Susquehanna Valley Transportation project.

Crews hired by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation have been moving tons of earth in areas of Monroe Township and Shamokin Dam to prepare for the building of the new roadway and nine bridges.

On Saturday, Mill Road between Greenbrier Avenue and Penns Drive was closed to allow the construction of two roundabouts at the intersection of Mill, App and Airport roads and to the west of Airport Road, said Ted Deptula, a PennDOT assistant construction engineer.

Airport Road will be realigned to connect to the western roundabout and an embankment to the north is being built for the elevated CSVT.

The work is expected to take six months, he said.

While detours are in place, Dave Heimbach, a Monroe Township supervisor who operates the family farm at 521 Mill Road, and has acres of corn and soybeans in Kratzerville on Route 204, said PennDOT has assured him they will have access to that property despite the road closure.

"They said they'll accommodate us," said Heimbach whose family has owned the farm for 54 years.

In about two weeks, another detour will be at Park Road as work begins realigning a section of Park and Fisher roads and Colonial Drive. Both Colonial Drive and Fisher Road will be connected to Park Road to allow for a bridge to be built over only Park Road, Deptula said.

Meanwhile, earthwork continues south of Attig Road, in the area of Stettler and 11th avenues and in Shamokin Dam at the Route 61 interchange where two small bridges will be added.

"North of that there will be a lot of excavation this summer," said Deptula of the work taking place on Sunbury Road where the detour now in place will remain until November. The road will be rebuilt to go over the thruway.

Once the earthwork is completed, the construction of nine bridges will begin. Deptula said plans are to bid those projects in the fall, with construction to begin at the end of the year and take two years to complete.

The final portion of the project will be laying pavement and "tying in the existing interchanges," he said. "Traffic should be on the main line in late 2027."

The projected cost of the project — both the Southern and Northern sections of the 13-mile CSVT — is $938 million.