Saturday, August 25, 2012
The Upper Macungie bridges that were closed since March 5 for structural deficiencies are now open.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced today that two Tilghman Street bridges closed since March 5 for structural deficiencies are now open. The project replaced the deck and beams on the Tilghman Street Bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad and the complete replacement of the bridge over Chapmans Road. The construction began in mid-March and is projected to cost $4.9 million. Originally, it had been estimated to take 1 ½ years but the contractor is condensing the work into a shorter time frame by working longer hours. During construction, Tilghman Street was closed and detoured between Blue Barn and Farm Bureau roads with a detour that utilized US 22, PA 100 and Interstate 78. Also during the project, the intersection…
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
It appears that tremors didn’t endanger spans in Lehigh County, officials say.
The earthquake that shook the East Coast appears to have spared bridges in Lehigh County but engineers are checking to make sure, county officials said. “We don’t believe we have any problems, nonetheless we’re taking precautions and checking,” said Glenn Solt, the county’s director of general services. He said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation handles inspections for the 47 bridges owned by the county and will be looking for any new cracks or signs of destabilization from the quake that hit last week. The tremors were initially cause for concern in Berks County where cracks on a bridge abutment on the Penn Street Bridge in Reading led officials to close that span briefly. Sean Brown, a PennDOT District 5 spokesman, said it was…
Friday, May 20, 2011
And the percentage of structurally sound bridges in the boroughs of Macungie and Alburtis are even higher.
The 34 bridges found in and around Macungie, Lower Macungie and Alburtis are structurally sound, for the most part. However, eight of those bridges -- 23.5 percent -- are not. Four are state-owned and four are locally owned. The numbers put the greater Macungie area directly in line with the rest of Pennsylvania, according to a recently released report by Transportation for American that found 26.5 of the state's bridges to be structurally deficient which means they need maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement. Out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania ranks first nationally in terms of the overall poor condition of the state’s bridges, (1 being the worst, 51 being the best), the report says. However, according to the …
