After more than a three-year interlude, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is poised to resume construction on the Route 28/Etna improvement project.

PennDOT has received an apparent low bid of $22.5 million for Phase 4, the first of two steps to create two northbound "through" lanes at the oddly configured interchange with Route 28 and the 62nd Street Bridge, which is currently closed in the southbound direction for bridge preservation.

The work is to start in about six weeks and cover 2.3 miles, from 330 feet south of Route 8 to just north of the Highland Park Bridge.

Traffic changes will be announced later, probably in conjunction with lifting restrictions on Route 28 north through Harmar and other communities where PennDOT is rehabilitating seven miles of the divided highway and a number of bridges.

But PennDOT will have to close Route 28 in the northbound direction at Etna as it did during reconstruction in the opposite direction, significantly disrupting traffic again.

PennDOT spent more than six years improving Route 28 southbound in three phases in the same area, completing and opening two "through lanes in March 2005. Since then, while no work has taken place at the interchange, PennDOT has done related work including rehabilitating the 31st Street Bridge and straightening the notorious Route 8 "Mae West Bend" at the Etna-Shaler line.

The upcoming Phase 4 will cover the northern half of the interchange, starting with rebuilding and widening elevated sections of highway over the Route 8/62nd Street Bridge ramps and Ravine Street. Also incorporated into the project are rehabbing bridges over Kittanning Pike and Scouts Reservation Road, building a new retaining wall to accommodate a longer acceleration lane from Route 8 and resurfacing Route 28 north to the Highland Park Bridge.

Completion is set for fall 2009.

Phase 5, covering Route 28 between Butler Street in Etna and the 62nd Street Bridge, is programmed to get under way in 2011. That contract will include rebuilding the elevated section of highway over railroad tracks and constructing a new bridge over Pine Creek on the exit ramp to Sharpsburg.

PennDOT is financing the upcoming work with increased funding from Act 44, the 2007 legislation providing for converting Interstate 80 to a toll road and raising tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.