{"id":173907,"date":"2026-04-23T14:51:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:51:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/173907\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T14:51:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:51:33","slug":"businesses-feel-impact-of-route-724-closure-in-robeson-township-southern-berks-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/173907\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses feel impact of Route 724 closure in Robeson Township | Southern Berks County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ROBESON TWP., Pa. \u2013 For 25 years, Shades of Green has been a local staple in Robeson Township.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re a homestyle, down-to-earth kind of place. Everybody&#8217;s friendly; everybody&#8217;s happy. We serve as much fresh food as we possibly can, and we have very good specials,\u201d said owner Marsha Rhodes.<\/p>\n<p>But now, a major road closure just outside is changing the flow of traffic.<\/p>\n<p>The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation shut down part of Route 724 in Robeson Township to replace\u00a0the bridge over the Allegheny Creek.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/berks\/route-724-closure-in-robeson-township-creates-detour-confusion\/article_ccc32e00-4dde-492b-b59c-51a1f4fe6659.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Route 724 closure in Robeson Township creates detour confusion\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Route 724 closure in Robeson Township creates detour confusion\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69e941e55cb1b.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tnt-summary\">PennDOT says the new bridge project is expected to be finished by October.<\/p>\n<p>Some drivers are cutting through Old River Road, while others are avoiding the area altogether.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s annoying for people here,\u201d Rhodes said. \u201cI do have two people that probably aren&#8217;t coming tonight, only because they are afraid that they can&#8217;t walk across the street fast enough. You have to be quick now. There&#8217;s too many people going here, and they&#8217;re so fast, and they really need to slow down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, she\u2019s staying optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s why I&#8217;m not really afraid of the road because people will come here for us,\u201d Rhodes said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say drivers should not be using Old River Road as a shortcut.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should be avoiding that. And again, it&#8217;s only for local traffic,\u201d said Robeson Township Manager Osmer Deming.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/berks\/section-of-route-724-to-close-for-bridge-replacement-next-week\/article_19637fb5-410d-4908-a921-98066b17f16c.html\" class=\"tnt-asset-link\" aria-label=\"Section of Route 724 to close for bridge replacement next week\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>                &#13;<br \/>\n                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Section of Route 724 to close for bridge replacement next week\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data- data-\/><br \/>\n                <\/a><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/69e2adacb5aad.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"tnt-summary\">PennDOT says work will start Monday to replace the Route 724 bridge over Allegheny Creek in Robeson Township.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because the bridge is already in poor condition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis has been downgraded to a Level One bridge, the lowest rating an engineer can assign,\u201d Deming said.<\/p>\n<p>The concern is that too much traffic could make things worse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe worst-case scenario is that the bridge would basically crumble and become unusable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The recommendation is to follow the detours to Route 422 and have some patience.<\/p>\n<p>For now, Rhodes is staying open and creative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;re just going to keep our specials exciting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROBESON TWP., Pa. \u2013 For 25 years, Shades of Green has been a local staple in Robeson Township.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[76378,44287,78005,128,130,129,6654,12748,64587,78004,16979],"class_list":{"0":"post-173907","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-allegheny-creek","9":"tag-bridge-replacement","10":"tag-old-river-road","11":"tag-reading-city","12":"tag-reading-city-headlines","13":"tag-reading-city-news","14":"tag-road-closure","15":"tag-robeson-township","16":"tag-route-724","17":"tag-shades-of-green","18":"tag-traffic-detour"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}