CRANBERRY TWP — State crews will be hard at work this year as construction begins on more than a dozen projects repairing and replacing roads and bridges across the county.

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials presented the projects at a briefing at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the PennDOT Cranberry Township stockpile off Haldeman Drive.

Paul Koza, assistant district executive of construction, discussed some details and walked attendees through project maps.

“We wanted to come out today and present our construction projects for the district this year,” Koza said.

The projects were laid out on maps, each representing a county covered by PennDOT District 10: Armstrong, Butler, Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson.

Koza said across the district, PennDOT has plans for 57 projects, altogether costing around $247 million.

Of that, the 15 projects in Butler County are expected to cost around $72 million combined.

Among these are the Freedom Road Turnpike Bridge Project and Interstate 79 bridges over North Boundary Road.

Crews are already at work on Freedom Road and officials hope to finish by December 2020. The project will replace the bridge carrying Freedom Road over the Turnpike and cost $13,127,925.

Crews also will work to replace the bridges carrying I-79 over North Boundary Road between Exits 78 and 83.North Boundary Road will be closed for six weeks during the work, although officials did not specify when the closure would occur.

The project will cost $14,651,688 and is expected to be completed in May 2021.

Several projects will be completed in 2019, including the resurfacing work on I-79 as well as the Route 228 expansion project in Adams Township.

Crews have been working to complete the 16-mile resurfacing project on I-79, which includes milling, patching and repaving four lanes between Exits 88 and 105.

The project costs $25.8 million and is expected to be completed this month.

Officials also hope to have the Route 228 expansion project in Adams completed by the end of the summer. Crews switched traffic Monday night.

The nearly $8 million project began early last year and aims to widen the road as well as add turning lanes, guardrails, signal improvements, drainage upgrades and a new box culvert.