NORWICH — A day after a vehicle accident at a temporary on-ramp for the southbound lanes of Interstate 91 in Norwich, state transportation officials have decided to close the ramp for about a month.
During the closure drivers wanting to access the southbound side of the highway will be rerouted to the Exit 12 on-ramp in Wilder.
The decision by state transportation officials to close the Exit 13 on-ramp came quickly on the heels of a two-vehicle collision on Wednesday. The crash occurred when an 80-year-old female driver was attempting to enter the southbound lane, failed to yield and her vehicle was struck by an oncoming vehicle, according to police.
Although neither driver was injured in the Wednesday afternoon crash, the incident highlighted the precarious design of the temporary Exit 13 on-ramp built to accommodate a nearby bridge maintenance project currently underway.
Under that design, the end of the southbound on-ramp onto I-91 has been extended into the right-side lane of the highway, eliminating the feeder lane that allows for gradual merger into the highway’s two southbound lanes.
As a result, drivers must stop at the end of the egress point and either sharply swivel their head around or look into their rearview mirror to check for approaching vehicles before proceeding into the single left-side highway lane through the construction corridor.
“When the lane closure was first installed at Exit 13 Southbound, there was a minor collision,” Jeremy Salvatori, project manager with Vermont’s Agency of Transportation, said via email. “Adjustments were made to the traffic control plan and there were no additional incidents until” the second one on Wednesday.
But now “the contractor has been instructed to develop a detour plan to divert Southbound on-ramp traffic to Exit 12 as we plan to close the on-ramp for approximately a month,” he said.
VTrans officials said they did not know when the traffic rerouting would go into effect, but drivers would be directed to take Route 5 about three miles south to Exit 12 in Wilder in order to get onto I-91 South.
The bridge maintenance project near Exit 13 on the southbound side of I-91 — along with a similar one on the northbound side — includes joint replacement, shoring up the superstructure and other concrete repairs, Salvatori said.
The total cost of the project, which began July 9 and is scheduled to be completed Nov. 14, is about $1.3 million. Miller Construction of Windsor is the contractor.