SANATOGA PA – Repairs the state of Pennsylvania plans to make this summer to the 96-year-old stone arch bridge that carries East High Street across the Sanatoga Creek, between Allison Drive and Sanatoga Road, will cost slightly more than $2.2 million, a representative of the state Department of Transportation reported Tuesday (March 30, 2010).

2004 repairs to the East High Street bridge made it impassable, as shown in this photo from PennDOT.

The state’s bridge repair contract for $2,212,369 has been awarded to Crossing Construction Company Inc. of Washington Crossing PA, according to Thomas R. Nevinger, consultant project manager for PennDOT Engineering District 6-0, based in King of Prussia PA. Word of the award came in an e-mail response from Nevinger to an inquiry by an East High Street merchant, who forwarded it to The Post.

Still unannounced: a specific start date for the work. Nevinger – repeating what is already known by Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township officials, High Street business owners and others – wrote that “construction is scheduled to start this spring and finish in December.”

The project includes removal of what Nevinger described as “deteriorated” parapets and a stone wingwall, repairing the existing stone arches and three remaining three wingwalls, removing old pavement and installing a new concrete slab with an asphalt top, and replacing the parapets with concrete walls covered by stone veneers.

The bridge, near the entrance to Cutillo’s Restaurant, is expected to be closed for about three months while repairs are made. It was last closed for repairs during 2004.

PennDOT has been planning the latest round of repairs since 2008. However, complaints from business owners about the closing schedule and from township commissioners about the agency’s failure to include them in bridge discussions, as well as weather and bidding complications, delayed the project.

Commissioners have insisted the length of the closure be kept to a minimum, that local traffic be given acceptable access to merchants and other locations on both sides of the bridge, and that the bridge is re-opened before school starts.

Bridge lane closures, Nevinger wrote, “will occur during the early and latter stages of construction,” with a full closure and accompanying detour route anticipated “from mid-June through late August.” Current plans call for a detour that takes drivers over Evergreen Road, U.S. Route 422, and Armand Hammer Boulevard. “Access to all adjacent properties will be maintained throughout construction,” he added.

The bridge is 50 feet long and 41 feet wide, and carries about 14,000 vehicles daily. Its repair is being is financed with federal and state funding.

Related (to the East High Street bridge):

• PennDOT Offer Sanatoga Bridge Work Timeline
• Details Are In That Pesky Paperwork
• PennDOT Set For Meeting On Bridge Work
• Missing Walks Latest Bridge Complaint
• Will Road Be Closed When School Re-Opens?
• State Says No To Keeping Bridge Open
• Township Looks To Pols For Bridge Help
• Bridge Closing Threatens Businesses, Board Says
• Sanatoga Bridge Closing This Spring
• Bridge Repairs Next Year

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