PennDOT resumes road work May 1

As Pennsylvania slowly begins to reopen in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will be getting back to work Friday.

PennDOT Acting Secretary Yassmin Gramian said both public and private construction projects will be resuming May 1, including PennDOT highway and bridge construction projects.

On March 17, in response the governor’s COVID-19 mitigation plan, PennDOT halted all construction projects in the state except for those that were an emergency.

Gramian said road and bridge projects will start based on project-specific factors including location and the ability to enact social distancing protocols. Workers will use face coverings, there will be job-site cleaning protocols in place and construction sites will have managed entries.

The safety plan, as well as a general framework for restarting construction projects, was developed by a PennDOT-led multidisciplinary team with representation from the construction industry and the consulting engineering community, as well as the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and the Federal Highway Administration.