OVERNIGHT LANE CLOSURES NEXT WEEK ON  I-95 SOUTH AT COTTMAN AVENUE INTERCHANGE

Southbound Interstate 95 will be restricted to one lane at the Cottman Avenue/Route 73 Interchange in northeast Philadelphia on Monday through Wednesday (June 15-17) from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning for line striping and barrier installation, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) said today.

Motorists are advised to allow extra time to travel south on I-95 while crews work Monday and Tuesday nights to eradicate existing traffic lines and paint new lines to form a three-lane construction pattern.  Starting Wednesday night, crews will set concrete barriers in place on southbound I-95 to establish a protected work zone between the Longshore Avenue and Unruh Avenue overpasses.

This work is part of PennDOT's $31.9 million project to build two new ramps at the I-95/Cottman Avenue Interchange (a new southbound on-ramp from State Road near Longshore Avenue and a new northbound on-ramp from Milnor Street) and to improve surface streets that carry traffic to, from and around the busy interstate.  This project is the first of two contracts for the $230 million project to rebuild and improve I-95 at the interchange.

Tony D. Paul & Son, of Blue Bell, Montgomery County, is the general contractor on the $31,953,398 project that is financed with 90 percent federal and 10 percent state funds.

Construction on this first stage is expected to be completed in 2011.

For more information on this and other I-95 improvement projects, visit www.95revive.com.