“There are a couple instances of projects where we’re taking advantage of that in order to get some work done quicker or make up for some of the lost time that we’ve had,” spokesperson Brad Rudolph said.
In mid-March, Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all construction to stop, including road work. But now, work can resume as long as everyone agrees to submit and follow new job site safety plans, which address all the federal CDC COVID-19 protocols.
“Social distancing, face coverings, personal and job site cleaning protocols, management of entries to the job site,” Rudolph added.
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He said an entire lane of northbound I-95 — covering more than 11 miles between the Delaware state line all the way up to Route 322 in Delaware County — has just been closed for a 12-day period.
In the days before coronavirus, Rudolph said, they wouldn’t have been able to do that without causing massive delays.
“This is going to allow the contractor to really get a lot of work done — more than they would have had they had to adhere to just non-peak travel times,” he said.
Crews are also working on a project along the Schuylkill Expressway in the area of 30th Street Station. They’re starting at 2 p.m. daily, rather than waiting until dark to catch up on the work.
Rudolph said contractors want to get their crews back out there, and PennDOT does too.
“As we’ve moved further away from the stay-at-home order in March, we’ve brought a lot more projects online,” he said. “By this Friday, we should have most of the program back restarting construction.”