Night Time Traffic Will Be Affected Through Prospect Mountain Project

According to a press release from Dave Hamburg at the New York State Department of Transportation, crews will begin nighttime construction work on the Prospect Mountain Project from 7 p.m. through 7 a.m.starting tonight (January 14th) through Saturday, January 19th. Work will be performed weather permitting.

According to the press release, crews will be installing steel bridge girders for the new Route 17 East Flyover Bridge.

There will be detour directing motorists around the road closures.

According to the press release, the signed detour route will guide motorists on I-81 South to Route 17 West to exit 71 S, the Johnson City exit. Motorist will travel under RT.17 and then turn right to return onto Route 17 East and complete the detour at the Route 17 / I-81 South Exit 4 S / N Port Dickinson exit.

If you are traveling South on I 81 it will add some time to your trip, but Hamburg says it will be less than 10 minutes.

I can't help but feel bad for the construction workers working the overnight shift on this project. This morning when I was driving in the temperature was six degrees, and that didn't include the wind chill. I can't imagine how much it's going to suck for them if they are on top of the flyover in the cold for hours at a time.

I am glad, however, that they are doing this part of the job at night. I'm sure the traffic backup would have been unbearable if they were to have scheduled this during the daytime hours.