Damage to a concrete retaining wall in Lower Towamensing Township will result in a long-term lane restriction that will be implemented on Route 248 west starting Thursday.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s District 5 announced Tuesday that the lane on 248 west will be restricted between Route 873 and Delaware Avenue after a recent inspection revealed damage to a 25-foot high section of the wall along the mountainside.

Sean Brown, PennDOT spokesman, said the wall was built in the early 1960s.

“It just is in need of work, you know, at its useful life,” Brown said.

“We need to do some repairs up there and then fix it up.”

PennDOT has hired a contractor to make necessary repairs to the damaged wall, and for safety reasons the lane restriction on 248 west will remain in place until the repairs are complete.

Work is scheduled to begin in late February/early March, and at times will entail weeknight lane closures on 248 east and west between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.

During that time, a single lane of 248 west traffic will be shifted onto 248 east to provide space for maneuvering equipment and materials.

Work will include removing loose dirt and installing retaining wall anchors into the bedrock behind the wall.

This section of Route 248 has an average daily traffic volume of 20,438 vehicles, including 9,881 vehicles on 248 west, and 10,557 vehicles on 248 east.

H&K Group Inc. of Skippack, is the general contractor on the $986,222 emergency project that is expected to be complete by July 5.

The lane restriction comes while work on the Route 248 bridge replacement project in Carbon County remains underway, but Brown said it won’t impact that project.

“What we’re doing with the bridge, this won’t affect the pattern of the bridge. We are going to be lifting that by the end of the year,” Brown said. “We will have work to finish up with that bridge after winter, but we will be lifting the bridge restriction by the end of this year.”

Earlier this month, Brown said he wasn’t sure when exactly the bridge replacement project will be completed.

The status of that project recently came under scrutiny by state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon.

Heffley sent a letter to state Department of Transportation Secretary Leslie Richards detailing his frustration with the project.

In his letter, Heffley raised concerns over public safety and work delays relating to the replacement of the bridge.

Work on the bridge will cost about $1.1 million, and is part of a $5.9 million contract awarded to Kriger Construction Inc. of Scranton to replace 13 bridges in three counties.

The bridge carries Route 248 over Norfolk Southern Rail lines and was built in 1962.

PennDOT announced in July that the Route 248 bridge project was expected to be completed in November.

Heffley also questioned the reason behind the delay in the completion of the contract and whether the contractor will be held financially, or otherwise, responsible; who wrote the specific contract; who approved the contract and awarded the project to the construction firm; and how does the department address contractors that have overextended themselves across numerous projects around the commonwealth, and not finish them on time.

In response to the letter, Ron Young, PennDOT spokesman, said there have been some issues with the bridge.

Young said that the expansion dams expand and contract with weather conditions, and noted that when the contractor started to replace them, they realized the original design didn’t fit with what they were seeing on the bridge, and that they had to reorder them.

He said that isn’t “uncommon” when dealing with a bridge maintenance contract.

Young noted this particular contract has 13 bridges, and the contractor has a start date and completion date to do all the bridges.

He said the dates are “anticipated, estimated,” and that “as long as they get the work done between the start and finish dates, they are in compliance with the original contract. They have until August 2019 to finish all the bridges.”

The project officially began in August 2016.