HARTFORD — The ramp that takes drivers from northbound Interstate 89 onto northbound Interstate 91 will close Wednesday and Thursday as crews pave it, part of the final stretch of a years-long bridge and highway project.
The ramp will be closed from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, according to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation. It may not stay closed for that whole window. “Weather permitting, the ramps will only be closed for a portion of each day and will reopen once milling and paving is complete,” the department said in a news release.
Drivers heading for I-91 north should stay on I-89 north to Exit 1, turn around, and take I-89 south to the ramp for I-91 north.
The ramp is at the Vermont end of a $43 million project that runs from Exit 20 in West Lebanon, across the Connecticut River, to the I-91 interchange in Hartford. Crews are rebuilding the two side-by-side I-89 bridges over the river and joining them into one wider bridge. When it’s done, the stretch will have two lanes in each direction, plus extra lanes between Exit 20 and I-91 so drivers have more room to merge, according to the Vermont Agency of Transportation.
Andy Silovich, the state’s contract administrator for the project, told the Valley News in July that the work has two goals. “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,” he wrote in an email.
The bridges, built in 1966, carry about 41,000 vehicles a day, according to state inspection reports and a 2017 state project report cited by the Valley News.
Work started in 2020 and was supposed to finish in September 2025, but environmental factors pushed it back. The state now expects to finish in November. The contractor is R.S. Audley of Bow.
State officials are reminding drivers to slow down and follow the Move Over Law, known as Sherrill’s Law, near the work zone. Real-time construction alerts are available by text or email at newengland511.org.
