The Bridge Blog: Updates on Stroudsburg's 7th St. Bridge Project

Drivers trying to take a shortcut weren't so lucky Thursday.

The bad news: Wrong-way drivers were a thorn in the side of Stroud Area Regional police all day Thursday. Officers pulled over dozens of cars headed the wrong way on Lenox Street in Stroudsburg, but for the most part issued only warning tickets.

Police will have a strong presence in south Stroudsburg as drivers adjust to the new traffic pattern created by the closure of the Seventh Street Bridge.

The good news: Only 14 1/2 more months until the new bridge opens.

Despite the one-way sign, motorists are still driving the wrong way down Lenox Street in Stroudsburg.

Well, just as was predicted on this blog last week, the one-way streets in south Stroudsburg have not gone over so well, and drivers are defiant.

Motorists driving on Lenox Street on Monday — the first day of the new traffic flow — seemingly ignored the newly installed one-way signs.

Borough officials, shocked at the defiance, vow a crackdown. Be warned, taking a stand against this insanity could cost you $110.

No workers were to be found on the shuttered Seventh Street Bridge on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s another day of construction on the Seventh Street Bridge – only no one’s there! This is the second or third day in the past week I’ve noticed no one working on the bridge.

You can’t blame the weather. It’s sunny and hot enough to cook huevos rancheros on the “Bridge Closed” sign. Still, no progress is evident other than some broken concrete. The concrete parapet removal, the first stage of the deconstruction process, doesn’t appear to have begun.

I also wonder what’s going to happen to the Budget Host Inn motel. With the end of Route 611 (Park Ave.) at the bridge basically a dead end, I wonder if the motel will be able to survive the drop in motorists driving by.

Drivers are told what they can expect on I-80 in the Stroudsburg area this week: more of the same.

As if the delays for nighttime construction on Interstate 80 throughout the Poconos as of late haven’t been bad enough, you can expect to sit in traffic during the daytime hours this week, too.

Guide rail repairs and work on the Seventh Street Bridge mean drivers can expect single-lane restrictions in both directions of the highway in the Stroudsburg area.

Getting through south Stroudsburg is about to get a bit trickier as all the side streets between Broad St. and Park Ave. will be one way -- in the same direction!

8:30 p.m. update: Well, despite my protests, Borough Council tonight has decided to go ahead with this hair-brained scheme, although it won’t take effect until June 27. But as someone once said: They’ve made their decision, now let them enforce it!

Tonight the Stroudsburg Borough Council will vote on whether to make four of the streets between Broad St. and Park Ave. in south Stroudsburg one-way for the duration of the Seventh Street Bridge project. The streets are Lenox, Robeson, Bryant and Clermont (A fifth street, Barry St., is already one-way). They would all be one-way heading west from Broad St. to Park Ave.

If the council approves the measure, the signs are already in-hand and will be posted first thing Friday morning.

In the opinion of this blogger, the plan makes no sense and is completely unnecessary. Despite the bridge’s closure, traffic has been flowing smoothly through the neighborhood. With the exception of people cutting down Lenox St., there has been no additional traffic on any of the other affected streets.

And quite frankly, Lenox St. is semi-commercial anyways, with one entire side being occupied by a motel and our Pocono Record offices. Why should we inconvenience the rest of the neighborhood when there are only about five houses on the block that might be bothered by the occasional spurts in traffic?

Not to mention the hazardous situation created by essentially creating a dead end on Park Ave. just before the bridge, with nowhere for drivers to go. Their only option will be to back up and turn around.

This is a perfect example of government taking a less-than-ideal situation and screwing it up even more.

Traffic is moving through Stroudsburg relatively well despite the closure of the Seventh Street Bridge, but I-80 is a different story.

Well, as we reported today, the closure of the Seventh Street Bridge hasn’t led to any sort of traffic nightmare – so far.

But you can always depend on old reliable, Interstate 80, for a good backup.

Work is continuing on a year-long project to pave and patch Interstate 80 between Tannersville and Delaware Water Gap, and that means you can expect traffic jams like the one pictured here for the next two months. The project is a rare example of nighttime construction in Pennsylvania.

Tonight crews were working on both sides of the highway in the Stroudsburg area, and with little warning, closed the Exit 307 exit ramp to Broad Street.

A separate project to improve I-80 between Blakeslee and I-380 is also taking place through the end of the year.

Someone remind me again, who is the genius who decided to schedule all of these projects at the same time?

After smooth sailing in south Stroudsburg for most of the afternoon, things are starting to back up — in spurts — as of about 2:45 p.m., especially on Lenox Street. Lots of drivers apparently aren’t following the posted detours to use Park Ave. and Broad St., and are cutting through some of the local streets (who would have thought).

The bridge is now officially closed as of about 12:35 p.m.

The bridge looks particularly deserted today. Newspapers strewn across the sidewalks give it a tumbleweeds-blowing-through-the-Western-town feel to it.  Just finished my last Dunkin’ Donuts coffee run via the bridge for a while. Future caffeine fixes will require a trip to Marshalls Creek. Will likely be faster.

Well, it’s 11 a.m., and the bridge is still wide open, although it’s down to one lane with workers flagging vehicles. Just made a round-trip into the downtown and back. Final preparations are being made, and the temporary traffic signal at the intersection of routes 611 and 191 in south Stroudsburg is in the process of being turned on. It could be a few more hours until the bridge is closed.