The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) recently awarded Lehigh and Northampton counties nearly $400 million in Interstate Transportation funding for Lehigh Valley projects in the 2021 Twelve Year Interstate Program.
Projects that are included in the 2021 Interstate 12-year Program include the $7.8 million patching and bituminous overlay of I-78 Cedar Crest Boulevard to Lehigh Street, the $10.3 million patching and bituminous overlay of I-78 Eastbound from Route 309 South to Route 412, the $20.5 million concrete patching/overlay and drainage improvement to I-78 from Easton Road to Route 33, the $20.8 million concrete patching/overlay and drainage improvement to I-78 from Lehigh Street to Route 309 South, and the $336 million reconstruction of I-78 from the Berks County Line to Route 100.
“Pennsylvania is home to over 1,300 linear miles of Interstate, which carries 26 percent of all of the state’s traffic,” Leslie S. Richards, PennDOT secretary, said. “The I-78 corridor in Lehigh and Northampton counties is critical to the movement of people and goods throughout Pennsylvania and beyond, and I’m pleased that we can make these important improvements to the transportation network in that region.”
Over the next eight years, PennDOT will be increasing spending on interstate projects until it reaches $1 billion annually.