Yearlong Overpass Construction Will Mean Truck, Bus Detours

Roadwork to repair the Macarthur Boulevard overpass over Route 17 will take a year to complete, but passenger cars will be able to travel back and forth over the bridge during the entire construction period. Buses and trucks, however, will need to take detours into Mahwah and Ramsey in order to travel between Macarthur and Island Road.

Those were the messages of a pre-construction public information session held in Mahwah Wednesday night.

Representatives from the NJ Department of Transportation, which will be completing the project, said the bridge is considered “structurally deficient” because of the condition of the bridge deck. And, the existing guide rail system on the overpass, which was originally constructed in 1956, no longer meets current NJDOT standards.

The construction project will replace the entire bridge deck with one that is the same size and scope of the current deck, and upgrade the existing guide rails, officials said. The DOT also plans to add guide rails to the ramps off 17, reconstruct the curbs and pave the roadway.

The construction is expected to begin this May, and last through at least May 2014, officials said.

During construction, the overpass will remain open in both directions for passenger vehicles. Trucks, buses and school buses will be detoured to either the West Ramapo Avenue u-turn on the northbound side, or North Franklin Turnpike exit in Ramsey on the Southbound side.

The DOT also anticipates nighttime lane closures on Route 17 during the construction period.

Initially, the project planned for traffic on the overpass to be open in one direction only. Officials from both Mahwah and Ramsey say they asked the DOT to reconsider the design, prompting the two-way traffic design. Though officials say the duration of the project would have been shorter with the one-lane closure, the local traffic impacts would have been more severe.

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