The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) Friday announced
beams
will start being delivered on Monday, March 23, for the new PA 903 Jim
Thorpe
Memorial Bridge over the Lehigh River, Lehigh Canal, Reading Blue Mountain Northern Railroad and Norfolk Southern Railroad in Jim Thorpe Borough, Carbon County.
A total of 59 beams are being delivered, ranging between 15 feet and 133 feet long and 20,000 and 150,000 pounds.
The first beams are scheduled to arrive Monday around 11 a.m. Additional beams will be delivered weekdays through early May.
For the first several weeks beams will arrive on the western side of the Lehigh River via Interstate 81, PA 54 and US 209. Then starting approximately April 13 beams will arrive on the eastern side of the Lehigh River via Interstate 80, PA 115 and PA 903.
Motorists may experience weekday traffic delays on the beam delivery routes and on local roads in the area of the bridge between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. through approximately May 8. No delays are anticipated on I-80 or I-81
Construction began in February 2014 on the new PA 903 Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge being built on a new alignment approximately 940 feet upstream from the existing bridge. The project also includes a new signalized intersection at the relocated PA 903 and US 209.
The project involves replacing the existing structurally deficient five-span steel girder bridge with a four-span continuous steel plate girder bridge.
Crews are also reconstructing and widening US 209 between Liberty and Packer Hill roads, building retaining walls, removing the existing PA 903 Bridge and performing other miscellaneous construction.
This bridge project is scheduled to be complete in July 2017. All schedules are subject to change.
Allan A. Myers, LP of Worcester, Pa. is the general contractor on the $28,183,312 project.
The PA 903 Jim Thorpe Memorial Bridge was originally constructed in 1953 and rehabilitated in 1976. It is 613 feet long and 27 feet wide. The new bridge will be 961 feet long and 57 feet 8 inches wide. This section of PA 903 has an average daily traffic volume of 9,681 vehicles.