Those who drive Interstate 95 from the Raymond E. Baldwin Bridge to the Interstate 395 exchange will be dealing with construction there until at least September 2017, according to state Department of Transportation officials.

DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said crews are working on two projects on that stretch.    

One of them, the replacement of the Society Road bridge at Exit 73, began in September 2014 and originally was slated to be finished in May of this year. Because of utility delays early on, Nursick said, the expected date of completion now is Aug. 28.

The bridge replacement is expected to cost almost $5.6 million, but Nursick said that number is based on the construction company's contract and doesn't include extras such as inspection costs.

The other project, a resurfacing and safety improvement project from the Baldwin Bridge to Exit 72, is almost on track to hit its expected completion date of Sept. 30, 2017. "Minor extra work" may push the completion into the fall, Nursick said, but officials are working with the contractor to mitigate the delay.

Nursick said the projected cost of the resurfacing project, also without additional costs included, is $24.6 million.

When DOT officials first discussed the resurfacing project with residents in June 2013, they said they expected construction to begin in the fall of 2014 and end by fall 2016.

"That was very early in the process, when the project was still under development," Nursick said. "The timeframes when we do that are very vague and are generally placeholders. You can't use what's in that and try to compare it to where we stand today."

The 2017 end date may come as unwelcome news for those familiar with that area of I-95.

According to 19 years of state data The Day crunched in a 2015 investigation, East Lyme from Exit 71 (Four Mile River Road) to the split with I-395 has the highest number of fatalities and injuries in the state east of the Connecticut River.

That number, 745, represents about a quarter of the crashes that injured or killed from 1995 through 2013.

And, while the accident rate for all of I-95 in Connecticut since 2008 is 1.6 accidents per 1 million vehicles, in the area of Exits 71 and 72 in East Lyme — located about a half a mile away from each other — the rate is 2.1 accidents per million.

Since two back-to-back accidents — one a double-fatal in East Lyme and one involving two tractor-trailers in Old Lyme — occurred in January, several local politicians have been calling for changes to the highway.

Speed limits in the area, they've said, should be reduced. Signs with various warnings for drivers should be installed. Police should boost their traffic enforcement.

On Jan. 13, Nursick said the limits already are set to reflect the speed that the road configuration can handle. Studies show people drive at the speed they feel comfortable with for the design of the road, he said.

He said "artificially reducing" a speed limit actually could increase the number and severity of crashes by creating a "speed differential" in which some drivers will obey the new, lower speed limit, while many more would continue to drive at a speed they feel comfortable with.

Nursick said Tuesday that DOT officials don't expect to see an increase in the rate of crashes between Exits 70 and 73 despite the uneven pavement, lane shifts and closed shoulders that exist along parts of it.

"The work zones are designed to national standards with safety in mind — safety of not just the workers, but also the motorists traversing the construction site," he said. "Generally you don't see an increase in crashes in work zones."

Nursick said both projects are about 40 percent complete at this point.

The contractor in the Society Road bridge replacement project made good progress in the mild December and January months, he said, and steel for the new bridge should be set in early spring.

In the resurfacing project, Nursick said, work is "progressing well."

In 2016, workers are expected to finishing installing a concrete median barrier that spans four miles. About one-and-a-half miles of barrier still need to be installed.

They're also scheduled to install right shoulder concrete barriers, perform concrete roadway repairs, perform bridge deck/structure repairs and repair the pavement structure on the Exit 71 south on- and off-ramps.

Workers won't be adding high-speed shoulders and paving the stretch until sometime in 2017, officials said.

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle