PennDOT’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Program won’t finish until 2019

With weather here and across the country the biggest culprit, the deadline for completion of the state’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Program has been extended for the second time.

Instead of 558 small bridges being replaced by the end of the year, more than three dozen now are expected to be finished and open by the end of March, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said. Another six bridges in the program that haven’t been started yet won’t be finished until later in the year.

The $942 million public-private partnership with Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners, the largest of its kind in the country, initially was supposed to be finished by August. The state added four months and $43 million to the project last year but this year’s extension won’t include a price increase unless the contractor can show it had to do increased work such as removing mud or replacing damaged materials as a result of poor weather, said Michael Bonini, head of PennDOT’s public-private partnership office.

There also won’t be any penalty for the contractor, he said.

“It was our full intention to have this done by the end of the year,” Mr. Bonini said. “Given the wet weather, not only did it impair some of our regional projects but it held up the Rapid Bridge projects, too. The weather really impacted their ability to work.”

Jeffrey Rossi, public information manager for the partnership, said record rainfall in parts of the state caused flooding and other damage in areas where some bridges were to be replaced. Additionally, utility

workers in Pennsylvania were sent to southern states several times for restore power after storm damage, delaying the relocation of utilities needed before bridge work could begin, he said.

“Weather played a big factor throughout the year,” Mr. Rossi said. “It’s been really hard to stay on schedule. First there were days, then there were weeks of delays.”

So far, Plenary Walsh has 511 bridges open and 41 more that should be finished early next year. It will wait until spring to begin work on the six that haven’t been started rather than trying to work through the winter, Mr. Rossi said.

“We’re going to continue into 2019 and finish the few bridges we have left,” he said.

The program was set up to have one contractor work on a series of small, similarly constructed bridges across the state. That way, engineers could use similar designs and crews could use mass-produced pre-cast concrete beams to create an economy of scale and routine installation.

That mostly worked, but in 2017 there also was a shortage of companies qualified to produce enough beams to meet demand, so the partnership had to work with private industry to develop more qualified suppliers.

The bridges that haven’t been started are among the most complicated in the program, Mr. Bonini said.

“There are definitely some of the more difficult bridges still waiting to be completed,” he said. “They’ll have the time they need to finish all of the bridges. I think folks understand all the rain we’ve received.”

Overall, Mr. Bonini said the state is very satisfied with the program, even if it didn’t quire finish on time. It would have taken the state far longer if it had to design and replace the bridges individually, he said.

“There are 558 bridges that we’ll be able to remove from our list,” he said. “Our ability to deliver 511 of them in a four-year time period has really been remarkable.

“The other factor in this is Plenary Walsh is responsible for those bridges for 25 years, so we won’t have to do any of the maintenance. It’s been a very successful project to date.”

Although there may not be another project that involves this many bridges, PennDOT last week put out a request for proposals for one contractor to replace 15 bridges on Interstates 80 and 81 in Luzerne County by 2023.