Community Corner

Travel Alert: One Lane Route 22 Returns Tuesday

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission says new construction zone could be set up by July 15.

After taking a Fourth of July break, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission will resume closing lanes on Route 22 Tuesday morning.

The eastbound side of the highway will return to one-lane traffic near the Easton-Phillipsburg bridge starting at 4 a.m. Tuesday, with the westbound side switching back at 6 a.m. 

Once in place, the lane closures will be in effect around the clock, the commission said in a news release.

"Next week's 24/7 bridge project lane closures will enable the Commission's contractor to convert a roughly three-quarter-mile segment of Route 22 between Easton and Phillipsburg into a construction zone that will stay in effect to mid-December," the commission said.

"Once established, this construction zone will require eastbound Route 22 traffic to be shifted onto the left westbound lane of Route 22. Eastbound and westbound Route 22 traffic would then run in single lanes immediately next to each other in an area between Fourth Street in Easton and the Commission's toll plaza on the Phillipsburg side of the toll bridge."

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The DRJTBC hopes to have this new pattern in place by July 15 or 16.

The commission began closing lanes last month as part of a $30 million project to rehabilitate the bridge between Easton and Phillipsburg, as well as some of the surrounding exits and overpasses.

The work is expected to take until early 2015, and will involve Route 22 being reduced to one lane during part of that time -- six months this year and another nine months in 2014.

To avoid traffic, the DRJTBC has asked drivers to use Interstate 78


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