The inbound Skyway will be closed to traffic, starting in just under four weeks. It's part of a major deck rehabilitation project that's expected to take two construction seasons to complete. But plans are in place to keep traffic moving.
Weather permitting, construction is expected to start on the Skyway, April 23. New York State Department of Transportation Public Information Officer, Susan Surdej says, the project will impact commuters who use the Skyway because the inbound lanes will be closed this season and traffic will alternate on the outbound lanes.
"And in the morning they're going to carry inbound traffic and in the afternoon they'll carry outbound traffic. So you're not going to have both directions of traffic traveling on the Skyway bridges at the same time. It will be one direction of traffic. And then the opposite direction of traffic will be using local detours," Surdej said.
The planned detour routes will change depending on the time of day. But, she says, they were "thoughtfully" developed to move traffic on city streets.
"There's different routes obviously for inbound traffic being diverted and outbound traffic being diverted onto city streets. So it's a combination of different routes," Surdej said.
In planning the nearly $30 million project, she says, the DOT coordinated closely with the City of Buffalo.
"And we've actually installed some temporary traffic signals, which are still in the process of being installed, and we are coordinating and synchronizing the traffic signals on our detour routes so that we can move traffic efficiently," Surdej said.
The DOT is holding a public information meeting about the projectand planned detours, April 18, at the Gateway Building, 3556 Lakeshore Blvd., in Blasdell.
