June 24, 2016
The Times-Tribune article: Representatives from the contractor tasked with replacing a bridge that spans Interstate 81 in the township held a meeting Thursday afternoon to outline aspects of the construction and field questions from the public.
The Edella Road bridge is slated to be replaced later this year through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Project, a joint private-public sector venture. A consortium of investment and construction companies, called the Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners, received a contract. More than 550 bridges will be replaced throughout Pennsylvania by the end of 2017 through the initiative, project spokesman Rory McGlasson said.
“These particular bridges are structurally deficient bridges,” Mr. McGlasson said before the meeting. “That doesn’t mean they’re about to fall down, it just means that there’s a part of the bridge that is way past its sell-by date and in need of replacing.”
The Edella Road bridge was constructed in the mid-1960s, has four spans and is about 300 feet long, project bridge engineer Phil Ruby explained at the meeting. It will be demolished and replaced with a more modern, two span structure about 250 feet long, he said.
“It’s a big bridge, there’s going to be a lot of work going on, but we will be able to get it done within the time frame, which is 16 weeks, starting at the end of August or the beginning of September,” Mr. Ruby said.
Construction will affect traffic on both Edella Road and also the interstate. For the duration of construction, traffic on Edella Road will be subject to a 2-mile long detour using state Route 407 and Venard Road. About 3,500 vehicles use the bridge on a daily basis, Mr. McGlasson said.
The project will also require closures of the interstate for about seven total days at different times during the project, Mr. Ruby said. The tentative detours for those closures, still subject to some changes, would reroute all southbound traffic on I-81 to Route 632 to Route 637 to Business Route 6, where traffic can get back on 81. Northbound detours would reroute car traffic up Route 407 to Route 632 and I-81 from there and truck traffic up Route 407 to Route 438 and I-81 from there, Mr. Ruby said.
The Edella Road bridge is the only in Lackawanna County slated to be replaced through the rapid replacement project, though work on bridges in neighboring counties, like Wayne, Susquehanna and Luzerne counties, has been done through the initiative, Mr. McGlasson said. Work started on some bridges in 2015 and 53 have already been replaced, Mr. McGlasson said.