New Meadow Hill Road bridge over I-87 gets concrete deck, opening set for July

The Meadow Hill Road bridge over Interstate 87 in Newburgh is still headed for a July reopening after a $7.8 million replacement that has kept one of the Town of Newburgh’s busiest local links closed to traffic. The span carries about 4,100 vehicles a day, so the closure has pushed drivers onto signed detours through South Plank Road, Union Avenue, Route 17K, Monarch Drive and Fletcher Road. The Thruway Authority is still projecting a summer 2026 finish, and the new bridge is meant to restore a smoother route for daily neighborhood traffic in Orange County.

For motorists, the immediate change is clear: the overpass stays shut until the replacement opens, but the detour network is already in place and a temporary signal at Route 17K and Fletcher Drive has been helping move traffic around the work zone. Frank G. Hoare, the Thruway Authority’s executive director, said the replacement would “improve the overall travel experience for the thousands of motorists who use it each day.” That matters here because Meadow Hill Road is not just a bridge over the Thruway; it is a daily connector for Newburgh drivers trying to get across I-87 without adding miles to an already crowded commute.

The new span is designed for wider and safer travel. It will carry two 11-foot lanes in each direction, with a 6-foot shoulder on the south side and a 5-foot shoulder plus a 5-foot-5-inch sidewalk on the north side. Vertical clearance over the Thruway will rise from 14 feet 3 inches to 16 feet 10 inches, a change aimed at reducing bridge strikes and extending the structure’s service life to 75 years. The project replaces a bridge built in 1953 that had reached the end of its service life.

The long closure began Friday, June 13, 2025, when the old bridge shut to all traffic, and the demolition and steel work that followed required overnight lane closures and traffic stops on I-87. In July 2025, the Town of Newburgh said removal of the old structure would take about two weeks, and the Thruway Authority later warned that installing 14 steel sections would bring more nightly lane closures in November. With the new bridge still aimed at a July opening, the project remains one of the region’s more visible efforts to replace aging overpasses before they become a bigger problem for Hudson Valley drivers.