Day and night, Thruway crews and private contractors are out on the superhighway getting it ready for another winter of wear.
Repair work started early this year because construction season started early and the workers were out there early. Projects ranged from washing salt off road and bridges to getting that hot black top in the trucks to put down on the pavement.
The big project is between Hamburg and Silver Creek, the third year of work on a $91 million re-paving of the road.
Buffalo Division Director Tom Pericak says much of the work may be done at night, but it is immediately visible to drivers.
Pericak says those who travel the free section of the road east of Buffalo can see workers "doing a lot of pavement repairs between 53 and 50, the 190 and Williamsville. You'll notice a lot of large blacktop patches. Those are generally full-depth areas where they've gone in where we've had problems underlying, usually water underneath."
"So we go in and do those and when they are all done with those repairs, we're going to go in and mill two-inches off the entire surface and put a new two-inch asphalt layer and so there's going to be a new riding surface."
Pericak says there is a lot of work on the southbound South Grand Island Bridge but it is electrical work underneath where drivers won't see the project.
