{"id":293189,"date":"2026-09-24T19:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293189\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T19:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T19:08:07","slug":"route-378-paving-in-bethlehem-among-79-pa-rapid-road-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/293189\/","title":{"rendered":"Route 378 paving in Bethlehem among 79 Pa. ‘rapid’ road projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work on one of the Lehigh Valley\u2019s busiest highways is under way and expected to be done in a little more than a year under a new PennDOT program to accelerate road repairs.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Thursday that a paving project on Route 378 in Bethlehem<\/a> has already started, ahead of schedule, and is part of 79 \u201cRapid Deployment Projects\u201d statewide.\n<\/p>\n

The governor said $250 million will be disbursed to the 79 projects this year, and a total of $775 million from the state\u2019s motor license fund will be disbursed over the next 18 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure this work happens right now,\u201d Shapiro said during a news conference not far from Route 378.<\/p>\n

The work on Route 378 between Route 22 and the Hill-to-Hill Bridge started ahead of schedule this month, according to the governor\u2019s office. The $12.9 million project includes milling\u00a0 and paving, concrete patching, base repairs, joint repairs, bridge deck repairs, overlays, guide rail upgrades and new pavement markings along the highway, as well as the Catasauqua Road, Eighth Avenue and Center City exits, the governor\u2019s office said in a news release.<\/p>\n

Work on the project is expected to be completed by December 2027.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe resurfacing of 378 between Route 22 and the Hill-to-Hill Bridge will strengthen one of the most critical connections in the heart of our region,\u201d Becky Bradley, executive director for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, said.<\/p>\n

Straddling both Lehigh and Northampton counties, Route 378 averages 35,000 vehicles every day, she said. It is a vital link between neighborhoods, jobs and institutions, she added.<\/p>\n

PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll said the Rapid Deployment Projects free up PennDOT funding to focus on other projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a cascading positive effect for the entire region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Traffic on Route 378 will be maintained with lane restrictions largely happening during off-peak periods.\n<\/p>\n

PennDOT District 5, which includes Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Carbon, Monroe and Schuylkill counties, is expected to get $78.1 million of the $775 million for the Rapid Deployment Projects. A list of all the projects included statewide be found at pa.gov\/rapidroadrepair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other Rapid Deployment Projects in District 5 include:<\/p>\n

Berks County<\/p>\n

Route 183\u00a0 paving from Plum Creek Road to New Schaeffertown Road in Jefferson and Penn township, and Bernville. Project length: 9.1 miles<\/p>\n

Carbon County<\/p>\n

Route 209 microsurfacing and base repair in Franklin and Towamensing townships. Project length: 12.6 miles<\/p>\n

Route 4012 resurfacing in Lehigh and Lausanne townships, and Weatherly. Project length: 2.4 miles<\/p>\n

Monroe County<\/p>\n

Route 390 paving between Route 940 and the Pike County line in Barrett Township. Project Length: 5.9 miles<\/p>\n

Route 447 paving between Route 191 and Pike County line in Barrett, Price, and Stroud townships. Project Length: 14 miles<\/p>\n

Route 209 resurfacing from near Route 447 to Twin Falls Road, and from Oak Grove Drive to Mount Nebo Road in Smithfield and Middle Smithfield townships. Project length: 2.5 miles<\/p>\n

Schuylkill County<\/p>\n

Route 309 surface improvement from bridge over Kershners Creek to bridge over Little Schuylkill River in West Penn Township and Tamaqua. Project length: 7.5 miles.<\/p>\n

Route 183 surface improvement from Route 443 to Route 61 in North Manheim and Wayne townships and Cressona. Project length: 2.9 miles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Work on one of the Lehigh Valley\u2019s busiest highways is under way and expected to be done in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,1391,5523,433,182,2941,139,434,28,231,432,2155],"class_list":["post-293189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-carbon-county","tag-lehigh-county","tag-local-news","tag-monroe-county","tag-news","tag-northampton-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-schuylkill-county","tag-top-stories-tmc","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293189","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=293189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}