Within days, renovation of the busy Harriman Toll Barrier, where Route 17 and the New York State Thruway meet, will be complete.

Painting of the columns that support the canopy over the toll booths is all that remains, and the work is being timed to prevent conflict with holiday — and Black Friday — traffic.

“From the beginning, we tried to schedule the work to avoid times of heavy traffic,” said Emanuel Gallego, the Thruway Authority’s construction manager.

The work, part of the $79 million contract to bring highway-speed E-ZPass to the adjacent Woodbury Toll Plaza, started in April and systematically rebuilt 10 of the 12 lanes at the toll booths with concrete, and then repaved the entire surrounding area with asphalt, at a cost of roughly $2.5 million.

The two outer lanes weren’t touched, but only because they hadn’t been reduced to bumpy craters by the pounding of heavy traffic — roughly 50,000 vehicles a day.

Gallego said the Thruway Authority’s analysis of toll data produced a plan to close a lane on a Monday and then rebuild and reopen it within 12 days, adjusting the schedule as time went by to accommodate peak traffic volume and minimize public inconvenience. Night shifts were also employed.

The work represents the end of improvements and alterations at the toll barrier in preparation for the advent of highway speed E-ZPass in May of next year.

Related and ongoing work involves physically separating entering traffic from Harriman and through traffic on the Thruway — much of which, come May, will be moving at 65 mph past the Woodbury Toll Plaza, the only toll plaza that sits smack in the middle of the Thruway’s 570-mile system.

The separate lanes, defined with Jersey barriers, will allow entering traffic to reach highway speed before merging into through traffic.

(Source: Times Herald Record)