The New Jersey Department of Transportation announced Thursday that an interstate closure originally scheduled to begin Friday will be pushed back a week to give drivers more time to find alternative routes to work.

The shut down will impact four miles of Route 78 eastbound express lanes from Route 24 in Springfield to the Garden State Parkway. Commuters are complaining that the state did not give them enough of a heads up to plan new routes to work, and local towns are already balking at traffic build up on smaller roads.

On a typical work day roughly 180,000 cars and trucks traverse the highway. The state is spending $42 million to rebuild the lanes and expect to complete the entire project by December.

Related Information:NJ motorists question DOT plan to close parts of Route 78