The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Engineering District 5 announced Friday that a project to reconstruct Route 443/Blakeslee Boulevard from the Carbon Plaza Mall in Mahoning Township to the Route 209/Thomas J. McCall Memorial Bridge in Lehighton is underway.

Starting Monday motorists can expect lane restrictions and changing traffic patterns on Route 443 between Ashtown Drive and Route 902/South Ninth Street. Over the next several weeks there will be flaggers controlling traffic on this section of Route 443 while workers move equipment and set up a traffic pattern shift.

For most of the project one lane will remain open in each direction, but there will be occasional lane restrictions. Updates will be provided whenever traffic patterns change.

Work on Route 443 includes reconstructing approximately 2.25 miles of roadway, adding a center turn lane along the corridor, adding left-turn lanes and traffic signal improvements at the Route 443 intersections with Mall Road/Mall Lane and East Penn Street/Mahoning Mountain Road designed to improve traffic flow and reduce crashes, drainage improvements, traffic signing, utility installation/relocation, new guiderail, pavement markings and other miscellaneous construction. The project also includes rehabilitating the Route 443 bridge over Mahoning Creek.

In addition, the Route 902/South 9th Street bridge over Mahoning Creek will be replaced and the intersection of Route 902 and Route 443 will be realigned slightly to the east to make a “T” intersection.

H&K Group Inc. of Skippack is the general contractor on the $21 million project that is anticipated to be complete in September 2024.

Work on this project will be in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and state Department of Health guidance as well as a project-specific COVID-19 safety plan, which will include protocols for social distancing, use of face coverings, personal and job-site cleaning protocols, management of entries to the jobsite, and relevant training.

For more information on projects occurring or being bid this year, those made possible by or accelerated by the state transportation funding plan, or those on the department’s four and 12-year plans, visit www.projects.penndot.gov.