The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced the following schedule of maintenance activities in Clearfield County the week of Sept. 25. PennDOT performs year-round maintenance in its mission to provide a safe, efficient transportation system, and the scope of work in Clearfield County for the coming week is as follows:
Bridge Maintenance & Cleaning
- Route 4009 (Highland Street) in Sandy Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
Pennsylvania has some of the oldest bridges in the country, with an age of more than 50 years on average. Preventive maintenance is vital in extending the life of the structures. As such, PennDOT maintenance crews perform some bridge deck patching and structural repairs.
Crack Seal & Hot Pour Mastic
- Interstate 80 in Bradford and Cooper townships. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
Crack sealing and hot pour mastic operations prevent water intrusion from seeping through cracks or joints in an asphalt road, which can lead to potholes and pavement breakup. They are proactive preventive maintenance strategies to prevent water from entering the roadways and accelerating the formation of potholes and other failures.
Manual Patching
- Interstate 80 in Sandy and Union townships. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Traffic reduced to a single lane.
- Route 322 in Boggs and Decatur townships. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
- Route 729 in Jordan Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
- Route 879 throughout the county. Wednesday, Sept. 27, through Friday, Sept. 29.
Most permanent pothole patching is completed in the spring/summer when temperatures stay consistently above freezing. If maintenance crews were not repairing potholes, the road surface would break up further and require more expensive corrective measures.
Pipe Replacing & Cleaning
?
- Route 453 in Bigler Township. Thursday, Sept. 28, and Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control.
- Route 3030 (Windy Hill Road) in Pike Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Wednesday, Sept. 27. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
Pipe replacement and cleaning are essential in maintaining water flow around state roadways. Controlling water flow is one of the most important aspects of maintaining pavements. Uncontrolled water flow will damage both the pavement surface and the area under the pavement, which causes deterioration across the length of the pipe.
Shoulder Maintenance
- Route 3030 (Windy Hill Road) in Pike Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Wednesday, Sept. 27. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control.
Shoulder cutting removes excess material and debris from unpaved shoulder areas. Shoulder grading involves the shaping and stabilizing of those same areas. Both operations improve drainage, allow water to leave the roadway, and eliminate shoulder drop-offs. These are crucial highway maintenance operations because when drainage systems do not function properly, water collects on the road, weakens pavement, accelerates the formation of potholes, and creates the potential for icing conditions in the winter months.
Side Dozing
- Route 879 in Goshen and Karthaus townships. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
Side dozing removes excess material from beneath guide rail areas, which improves drainage and allows water to sheet flow off the roadway. Side dozing is a crucial highway maintenance operation because when drainage systems do not function properly, water collects on the road, weakens pavement, accelerates the formation of potholes, and creates the potential for icing conditions in the winter months.
Signing
- Various routes throughout the county. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. This work takes place off the roadway and has minimal, if any, traffic impact.
Signs are the most prominent way PennDOT communicates roadway safety and other information to our customers. County maintenance organizations have crews responsible for installing and repairing signage along state roads and reviewing installed signs to determine if replacements are needed. Reasons for replacing a sign include age, vandalism, or damage.
Vegetation Management
- Route 729 in Jordan Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control.
- Route 969 in Pike Township. Monday, Sept. 25, through Friday, Sept. 29. Flaggers in the roadway will provide traffic control.
- Mowing on various routes throughout the county.
Mowing, herbicide spraying, and selected tree thinning help maintain a safe roadway free of obstructing vegetation, improving visibility to spot signage, traffic control devices, and other motorists, bicyclists, pedestrians, and animals approaching the road. Additionally, a well-maintained roadside can improve drainage and prolong the life of the roadway.
PennDOT urges motorists to exercise caution in these and all work zones to ensure their safety and the safety of county maintenance staff.
This schedule is subject to change due to weather conditions, emergencies, or other unforeseen interruptions.
Customers can report road concerns by calling 1-800-FIX-ROAD. If calling after hours, please leave a name and phone number.
For more information on PennDOT’s maintenance activities, visit www.PennDOT.pa.gov/about-us/maintenanceactivities.
Motorists can check conditions on major roadways by visiting www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information, and access to more than 1,000 traffic cameras.
511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and Android devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts accessible on the 511PA website.
Subscribe to PennDOT news in Cameron, Centre, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Juniata, McKean, Mifflin, and Potter counties at www.penndot.gov/District2.
Follow PennDOT on Twitter and like the department on Facebook and Instagram.