SCRANTON, Pa. -- The new Harrison Avenue Bridge in Scranton replaced one that was more than 90 years old. Drivers in the Electric City say the process of replacing it felt like a century.
Since the bridge project started in 2014, it has affected traffic down below on the Central Scranton Expressway. Once the new bridge was up, PennDOT got to work rebuilding the expressway.
For the first time in five years, all four lanes of the expressway are open. That's almost as long as Ghendy Lora has lived in Scranton.
"It feels nice. Everything's nice. I said, 'Finally, they're done!'" Lora said.
The smoother ride signifies the end of one of PennDOT's biggest projects within the city limits.
"Once this is done, in the minds of the public, we're sort of wrapping up the Harrison Avenue Bridge and the Central Scranton Expressway both and that should happen as soon at the weather cooperates and we can paint the lines up here and remove the barrels that we have in place," said PennDOT spokesperson James May.
Drivers on the Central Scranton Expressway have become very used to orange barrels narrowing traffic as they exit Interstate 81. PennDOT said that the alternate traffic pattern that's been in place for about five years during the construction will now become permanent.
"It just seems to flow much better, so as we were doing the construction we noticed that the crashes were reduced and everything seemed to flow much better, so we will keep that pattern in place," May added.
PennDOT officials said that the jersey barriers between the inbound and outbound lanes will also stay in place.