WEST LEBANON —The on-ramp leading from Route 12A on to northbound Interstate 89 at Exit 20 is scheduled to be closed most nights from Monday through July 17.
The New Hampshire Department of Transportation will close the ramp from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. so that construction crews can install a drainage pipe, according to a news release from the department.
Additionally, I-89 northbound down to one lane between the Exit 20 off-ramp and the bridge that spans the Connecticut River into Vermont.
Weather permitting, the work is expected to take nine nights. The ramp closure will not be in effect on July 10 and July 11.
As a detour, drivers are encouraged to use Exit 20 to take I-89 southbound to Exit 19, continue onto Route 4 westbound and access I-89 at northbound Exit 19, according to the release.
“Road users should expect delays between Exit 20 and the Vermont State line on I-89 (northbound) as well as along the detour,” according to the release. “Road users should remain alert while traveling through the construction zone and obey all posted signs.”
The drainage work is among the final steps in a bridge overhaul that began in the fall of 2020.
“The project’s goals are twofold, with the first being replacing the aging super structure of the bridges over the Connecticut River and the second is to alleviate some of the traffic congestion and short merge lanes between exit 20 in New Hampshire and the I-89 and I-91 interchange in Vermont,” Andy Silovich, New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s contract administrator for the Lebanon-Hartford bridge project wrote in an email. “To accomplish this a ‘new bridge’ has been constructed in between the existing bridges to allow for traffic shifts while the existing bridges are rehabilitated and then providing enough width to allow for three lanes of traffic in both the northbound (NB) and southbound (SB) barrel of I-89.”
New “auxiliary lanes” will help carry traffic from Interstate 91 to the southbound ramp of Exit 20 on I-89, and from the Exit 20 northbound on I-89 to the ramp onto northbound Interstate 91, Silovich wrote.
“This will allow traffic either merging onto the highway or exiting to have the entire length of the bridge to safely complete their merge,” Silovich added. “The project also addresses aging drainage, guardrail, signs and pavement.”
The entire project has “completion scheduled” for this fall, Silovich said, stressing that the weather will play a role in reaching that goal. He noted that the majority of the work on the yearslong project has been weather dependent, including placing concrete decks, paving and line striping.
The project is about a year behind schedule and slightly over budget.
“The installation of the new piers located in the Connecticut River were a challenge with some subsurface conditions causing some delays during pier construction,” Silovich wrote. “These delays put the project out of sequence which has caused additional delays that the crew has been working to overcome.”
The original bid for the project was around $44 million and the price tag has since risen to $46 million. The project included a contingency fund.
In addition to the drainage work that will take place over the next two weeks, crews still need to install medians, pave and add guardrails, among other tasks.
“We always like to remind everyone traveling through any construction project to be cautious and observant to minimize the chance of any accidents with the crews working and other motorists,” Silovich wrote. “We all want to get home at the end of the day and we appreciate everyone that drives undistracted through the construction zones.”
For more information about road closures, visit newengland511.org.
