Raynham ramp to Route 24 South subject to intermittent closure in coming weeks

RAYNHAM — Don't take for granted that you can swing with ease onto a certain Exit 13 ramp. The fact is it just might not be open.

Although the ramp road leading onto Route 24 South from Route 44 East reopened May 11, it since then has been temporarily shut down at least once to allow for follow-up work.

And there could be more such delays.

Until it officially reopened two months ago, the Raynham ramp had been closed since February 2015 as part of a $15 million Department of Transportation repair project.

The focus of the work, the DOT said, was to implement a "full-scale rehabilitation" of a bridge section of Route 24, situated just south of Exit 13A.

Both the Taunton River and highway bridge are undetectable from the perspective of a vehicle using the north-south Bay State highway.

That structural bridge work has been finished, according to DOT.

Final Route 24 paving and road marking approaching Exit 13, they said, should take place next week.

During the 14 months the ramp was closed, vehicles heading east on 44 with an eye toward getting onto 24 South had to drive across the long overpass and make a U-turn near the entrance to the Lowe's and Longhorn Steakhouse shopping plaza.

That inconvenience appeared to be a fading memory by the time a story appeared last week in the Taunton Daily Gazette providing an update of the entire project.

But within less than a week of the story being published the same ramp was again blocked off — this time from the night of Sunday July 10 until Monday morning, July 11.

The DOT says the 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. closure was necessary to complete restoration work of the grassy area, also known as the "lobe area," between the ramp and Route 24.

That grass-and-dirt section had been used during construction as a staging area for construction materials and equipment by Lowell-based S&R Contracting Corp.

The ramp will be subject to intermittent "short-term night closures" over the next few weeks, the DOT says, to allow for striping as well as the installation of pavement markers and rumble strips.

Electronic message boards will announce pending closures to drivers heading east on Route 44. The DOT also said the work is "weather dependent" and will be "subject to change without advance notice."

In addition to shoring up the bridge structure, another advantage of the improvement project will have been the addition of dedicated third lanes, both north and south, for vehicles taking the first of two number 13 exits in either direction.

The third lane for the Route 24 southbound exit onto westbound Route 44 is already functional.

The entire project initially was expected to be completely finished by next Tuesday, July 19. That date also could be extended depending on how long it takes for site cleanup and "contractor demobilization," the DOT said.