If you plan to take I-84 West over the New York border this weekend, you might want to think again.
Westbound lanes of Interstate 84 along the Connecticut-New York line will be closed as workers replace a two-lane bridge.
The New York state Department of Transportation will install a prefabricated bridge near Southeast, N.Y., in just 18 hours. The procedure will be repeated for the other direction of the bridge in October.
The Associated Press reports that beginning Saturday, traffic will be detoured from I-84 west at exit 1 in Danbury and onto Route 6 for about four miles. It will be diverted back onto the interstate at exit 20 in New York.
Promoters of the installation technique say that in the long-run, it will reduce traffic disruption. Conventional bridge replacement could take years to complete.
Drivers might need to get used to closures like this. A recent AP report found 7,795 bridges in the United States that were both "fracture critical" and "structurally deficient."
Connecticut contains 49 of those bridges.
