New Kenmawr Bridge plans shown to public

A new Kenmawr Bridge to be built in 2017 will be wide enough to accommodate an extension of the Port Authority’s Martin Luther King Jr. East Busway, should the authority ever decide to undertake the project.

Residents got their first look at preliminary plans for the new span on Thursday night at a public meeting at Rankin Christian Center.

The project will replace the decrepit 77-foot-long existing bridge with a 121-footlong bridge with wide lanes and sidewalks on both sides. The new bridge will be 3 feet higher than the existing one.

The project also calls for reconstruction of the South Braddock Avenue and Kenmawr Avenue approaches and improvements to several side streets, including a slight realignment of Sixth Avenue in Rankin.

Perhaps the project’s most unusual feature will be a temporary bridge that will be erected alongside the old one so that traffic can be maintained during construction. Dan Cessna, district executive for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said the hope is to complete the project in one season, with a onemonth detour at the end as the approaches are connected to the new structure.

There is $11.75 million budgeted for design, right-ofway acquisition, utility work and construction over the next four years. Federal and state money will cover much of the cost, with Norfolk Southern Railway pitching in about $1.1 million.

The existing bridge, which connects Swissvale and Rankin over the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, has been in an advanced state of deterioration for years. It now has a 6-ton weight limit, making it offlimits to anything heavier than a delivery van. Mr. Cessna said the railroad is making improvements that will increase the weight limit to 12 tons.

“We’ll be able to be sure the bridge is safe and remains open until the new bridge can be built,” he said.

The current span rates as one of the worst bridges in Pennsylvania, with a sufficiency score of 2 on a 100point scale. It also is rated structurally deficient, meaning additional deterioration could cause it to close.

The bridge carries Braddock Avenue, a major feeder to the Parkway East interchange in Swissvale and a main route to Kennywood Park in West Mifflin. Port Authority buses have had to detour around the bridge for more than two years, and that will continue when the weight limit is increased.