For nearly a decade, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has been working with industry partners to construct 13-mi. of new limited-access road, which will address safety and congestion concerns on the Routes 11/15 corridor in Northumberland, Snyder and Union counties. The project is divided into Northern and Southern sections.
The CSVT Northern Section opened to traffic in July 2022, and the most recent traffic counts show that the CSVT River Bridge is carrying approximately 16,000 vehicles per day, including 3,800 trucks, a 33 percent increase over previous counts.
Work on the CSVT Southern Section began in 2022 and will bring the construction of approximately 6 mi. of new four-lane, limited access highway connecting Route 15 south of Winfield to Routes 11/15 north of Selinsgrove in Monroe Township and Shamokin Dam Borough, Snyder County.
It will include an interchange/connector to Route 61 (the Veterans Memorial Bridge) that leads to the city of Sunbury in Northumberland County.
The first contract was awarded to Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh for $115.2 million in the Spring 2022. The contract included earthwork, drainage structures, erosion and sediment control facilities, construction of the new bridge carrying Sunbury Road over the CSVT highway, and improvements on existing local roads to accommodate the CSVT highway. Work began in summer 2022 and was completed in 2025.
The second contract was awarded to Walsh Construction Company LLC of Chicago, Ill., for $106.4 million in the fall of 2023 and is 98 percent complete. The contract included nine new bridges and four noise barrier walls. Work began in 2024 and is anticipated to be completed in 2026.
The third contract was awarded to a joint venture between Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh and Golden Triangle Construction Company Inc. of Imperial, Pa., for $186.4 million in the fall of 2025. The contract includes paving of the CSVT mainline, the Route 61 Connector and various interchange ramps, as well as drainage structures, guide rail, traffic signals, highway lighting, and overhead sign structures.
The Southern Section mainline is anticipated to be opened to traffic in 2027 and the Route 61 Connector is anticipated to be open to traffic in 2028.
Work on the southern piece of the CSVT is now under way with a $186 million project that will create a bypass, enabling motorists to loop around the Shamokin Dam and Hummels Wharf area and connect with the completed Northern section of CSVT. The CSVT will carry the joint label of Routes 11 and 15 in the southern section that is under construction. The southern section is scheduled to be finished in 2028.
Studies showed that half the vehicles are through traffic, with 80 percent truck traffic. The CSVT should efficiently reroute truck traffic and improve safety.
PennDOT's Dave Wise is overseeing the southern portion of the project. Construction is being handled by the joint venture of Trumbull and Golden Triangle. Trumbull also has had a hand in earlier pieces of the CSVT job.
Wise told Construction Equipment Guide that the entire project of approximately 13 mi. will cost about $975 million.
“The bulk of the earthwork has already been done on the southern section,” he said. “Trumbull did an enormous amount of excavation, moving some 4.5 million tons of dirt and rock. They used a large Cat excavator and had up to a dozen massive Cat 777 off-road trucks in action. Their team was using as many as 10 trucks at a time for the work.”
New Road — Concrete With Asphalt On Top
The workers will be laying a subbase of 4 in. and cement-treated permeable base of 4 in. The construction team will then place a 9-in. concrete pavement in building the new highway, then finalizing the job with an asphalt layer on top.
“We will begin the concrete pavement during this construction season, complete it next season and do the asphalt work next year,” said Wise. “Often projects build a concrete road, then follow up years later with an asphalt overlay. This design is to do both the concrete and asphalt as part of this project to create an extremely long-lasting road.”
Workers plan to use approximately 420,000 sq. yds. of concrete and 125,000 tons of asphalt for the job. Workers also will be building multiple noise walls, embankments and ramps as part of the job. The concrete will be produced at a batch plant on the other side of the Susquehanna River from the construction work.
Wise said that since the construction will be a brand new, four-lane road there will be only limited impact to current traffic patterns.
Working With Utilities
Construction of the southern section of CSVT has faced challenging interaction with utilities.
“The new highway will be close to major electrical transmission lines as well as a gas transmission line that feeds a power plant that services the area,” said Wise. “In addition, there is a public water supply near the project that serves several hundred homes.”
Wise noted that working with the utility companies required complicated coordination between both parties.
“We had to adjust the schedule many times to avoid delays to the construction,” he said.
Ash basins were another utilities issue. The nearby power plant used to be fired by coal, which produced a great deal of ash. Utility workers have liquefied the ash and pumped it into nearby basins for nearly a century. The liquid ash, held in place by a dam, was later capped by soil. Project planners determined that workers should build the new road around the ash basins rather than over them.
Another environmental issue that the construction team and planners had dealt with was acid-producing rock. This material contains minerals like pyrite that can combine with water to produce sulfuric acid.
“Previous projects discovered that this acid could pollute nearby streams,” said Wise. “We mixed lime and limestone with the rock to neutralize the acid, then moved it to a designated encapsulation location and sealed it off.”
Wise expects the new road to last up to 100 years and offer protection for smaller communities like Hummels Wharf, Shamokin Dam Borough and Monroe Township. The eventual effect will be that motorists will be able to travel from near the Maryland state line to New York without encountering a single traffic light.
Eric High, PennDOT district executive, has high hopes for work on the southern section of the thruway.
“The new highway will not only improve safety by separating trucks and other through traffic from local traffic, but also it will facilitate economic growth in the region by connecting to other major transportation arteries,” he said.
