BRIDGE REPLACEMENT PROJECTS PLANNED
Walnut Street bridge project coming up; completion expected to take 14 months
PERKASIE/SELLERSVILLE » A Main Street Sellersville detour for replacement of a culvert should soon be over, but another longer-lasting detour for the replacement of Perkasie’s Walnut Street bridge will follow after.
The Sellersville culvert over Wertz Creek near Longwood Avenue has been closed for about two months.
“Right around the end of August, they are planning to have that paved and open to traffic,” Sellersville Borough Manager David Rivet said.
The concrete arch culvert built in 1937 is being replaced by a new precast concrete box culvert, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said in a release prior to the start of the work. The Sellersville work is part of a $6.8 million project to rehabilitate five structurally deficient bridges in Bucks and Montgomery counties and three structurally deficient culverts in Bucks County and to stabilize a stream embankment at a bridge in Bucks County, Penn DOT said. Loftus Construction is the general contractor for the state-funded project, Penn DOT said.
Next in line among the bridges to be reconstructed is the Walnut Street bridge in Perkasie, which crosses the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek. The existing reinforced concrete arch bridge was built in 1907 and reconstructed in 1970.
The H&K Group was the low bidder, at a little more than $5 million, to be the contractor for the construction of the planned bridge replacement, Kevin Spencer, Bucks County’s director of operations, said. The Perkasie bridge is county-owned. The Sellersville ones are state-owned.
“We anticipate actual construction starting in early September,” Spencer said of the Walnut Street bridge. “That’s when the bridge will be closed and they’ll start to do their demolition.”
Signs will be posted at the bridge about two weeks in advance of the closing and
information will be posted on Perkasie Borough’s Facebook page throughout the project, he said.
“The borough does use social media as much as possible to keep residents and visitors up to date,” Perkasie Borough Manager Andrea Coaxum said.
Information also will be posted on the borough’s website, she said. The borough will also use social media to help support businesses affected by the bridge being closed, she said.
“Once construction starts, it’s a 14-month construction completion timeframe that the contractor has,” Spencer said.
“October or November of next year is when we anticipate completion,” he said. “We’re hoping to get it done sooner and we’ll work very closely with the contractor, but by contract that’s the time that they have to get it completed.”
“Let’s just all hope for a mild winter so we can maximize the use of the next 14 months,” Coaxum said.
Construction equipment will be stored in a fenced-off area of Lenape Park, where there is a construction easement, she said, but residents will still have normal access to the park. There also will continue to be access to businesses in the area of the bridge, she said.
“It’s just not going to be as convenient to get around town because of the bridge closure,” Coaxum said.
Work is currently being done to sample materials from the existing bridge to determine where the materials will be disposed, Spencer said.
The new bridge will have sidewalks on both sides of the road, he said.
“The bridge’ll be a little bit wider,” he said.
The intersection of Constitution Avenue and Walnut Street will also be realigned, the traffic signal will be replaced and there will be an Americans with Disabilities Act upgrade.
The county will pay for the work, then be reimbursed by Penn DOT for 80 percent of the costs, Spencer said. In addition to the construction costs, the project includes other expenses, such as engineering and inspection fees, he said.
Bridge replacements are also planned for the bridge near the firehouse and the one over the railroad tracks on Main Street in Sellersville. The one near the firehouse will remain open to twoway traffic, as well as to pedestrians, during the construction, Rivet said. The one over the railroad tracks will be closed during construction, he said.
The latest information he’s received from Penn DOT about the bridge at the firehouse is that advertising for bids from contractors will go out in August, he said.
Construction work for that bridge probably won’t start until next year, he said.
Rivet said he doesn’t know when the bridge over the railroad tracks will be replaced.
“I have not gotten an update on that in a long, long time,” he said.
Although he doesn’t know if the work on the firehouse and railroad track bridges will overlap, he said, it wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if it did.
“I just frankly would like to see them both done as quickly as possible because it’s disruptive, especially to the fire company,” Rivet said.