Motorists may encounter brief traffic delays and a detour resulting from work on the 15th Street and Ward Street Bridge construction project in the City of Allentown later this week.

The contractor will be moving a crane between 5:00am and 6:00am on Thursday, July 18. The move is expected to take approximately 15 minutes. Traffic will be controlled on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive using flagman during this time period.

The contractor will be delivering five beams to the project site starting at 7am on Friday, July 19 and four beams on Saturday, July 20. No detour is required on Friday, July 19. The beam delivery route through the city, from Route 22 onto 15th Street southbound to the site, will be the same as with the previous Ward Street beams that were placed last month. However, these beams, while large, are much smaller than the Ward Street beams and do not require side street closures. The escort vehicles with each load will transport the load through traffic per their normal operating procedure.

The contractor will be setting-up a detour route for one day to divert traffic to allow for the safe erection of the beams for the planned 15th Street Bridge over Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. The detour will be in effect starting at 6:00am and will continue all day on Saturday, July 20, concluding at approximately 6:00pm that evening.

Eastbound traffic on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive will be detoured north on S. 15th Street, west on South Street, north on S. 17th Street, east on Elm Street, and south on S. Franklin Street to Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. Westbound traffic on Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive will be detoured north on S. Franklin Street, west on Elm Street, and south on S. 15th Street to Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.

J.D. Eckman Inc. of Atglen, Pennsylvania is the general contractor for the $8.4 million project. Funding for the project is 80% Federal, 15% State, and 5% City.
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