Price of bridge repair jumps 900%
UPPER POTTSGROVE » The estimated repair price to the pedestrian bridge to the back entrance of Pottsgrove Middle School has jumped 900 percent — from $35,000 to $350,000.
Tuesday night, Pottsgrove School Board President Robert Lindgren, who also heads up the board’s facilities committee said, “the damage was much more extensive than we first thought.”
Last month, Pottsgrove Facilities Director Jeffrey Cardwell told the board that the bridge failed an inspection in January and at least two blocks of concrete need to be removed in order to replace the steel waffling underneath.
He said the investigation by a contractor found that three drains in the bridge had allowed water to penetrate and rust the bridge’s steel decking.
The estimated cost of repair was set at $35,000.
The concrete and decking need to be removed and replaced, and the drainage system re-designed to prevent the problem from occurring again, he said.
Engineers also examined steel support girders for signs of rust and once a soffit was removed, the damage was revealed to be much more extensive, said Lindgren.
That said, Cardwell said he
believes the $350,000 cost estimate to be a “worse-case scenario,” and he hopes to lower the cost to between $150,000 to $200,000.
One way that can be done, he said, is to change the work times.
The estimate was based on starting work after school let out. But starting in the morning and moving students who would be disturbed by the noise would allow the project to be done more quickly and more cheaply.
Business Manager Dave Nester said the project, when combined with the $2.4 million roof replacement at the building and some changes to the HVAC system, put a pretty big bite into Pottsgrove’s capital budget reserve.
The capital reserve budget has been reduced by about $5 million, reducing by about a third from $15 million, he said.