Rittenhouse Road bridge ready to be fixed
All construction issues have been addressed, and the contractor is ready to go once the shutdown in lifted.
Repairs to a damaged bridge in Towamencin are on hold due to coronavirus closures, but could move quickly once the state’s shutdown of business activity ends.
“All issues related to the start of construction have been addressed and the contractor is ready to mobilize, pending authorization from the state to resume construction activities,” said township engineer Tom Zarko.
The Rittenhouse bridge was damaged July 18 by an auto accident, closing the road for two weeks as the damage was evaluated. In late July the street was changed to one-way only when the bridge reopened, and the board voted to make that one-way permanent Sept. 11, just days before a second crash Sept. 20 further damaged the bridge, causing a permanent closure.
In October, the board heard how repairs could be sped up under an emergency repair classification, and the next month the board bid out the purchase of a new culvert. In December, emergency permits were secured from the state, in January,
the board purchased a prefabricated culvert for just shy of $14,000, and in February, a $104,000 contract for the construction was awarded.
Township officials gave an update earlier this month on the status of the project, during the township supervisors’ March 11 meeting and just before Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders to shut down all nonlife-sustaining businesses. The project is on hold pending the lifting of those orders, but at that time, Zarko and supervisor Rich Marino said the fabrication of the culvert was finished, and work was nearly done to secure construction easements from adjacent homeowners.
Contractors and the engineer have also met with the North Penn Water Authority, which has requested a modification to a 16-inch water main close to the culvert that needs to be relocated.
That change order is estimated to cost an additional $13,200, supervisors Chairman Chuck Wilson said, and the water authority is asking for slightly more just in case.
“While North Penn Water Authority has agreed to do most of the extra work, it is asking for reimbursement on not more than $16,000 to cover labor costs,” he said.
That amount will be added to the costs the township is already trying to secure from the insurance carrier of the driver involved in the first crash, Wilson said, and the supervisors approved the change order unanimously.
Marino added that the board’s Public Works committee has also discussed examining the traffic flow on Rittenhouse Road in that area once the repairs are done, to see whether the one-way restriction should remain or two-way be restored.
The township’s traffic engineer did study that area in 2015 when several nearby roads and bridges were closed for work on widening the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and Marino said that study could be updated again by township traffic engineering consultants McMahon Associates once the Rittenhouse repairs are done.
“The committee has requested McMahon Associates to review that study, to determine what would be needed to restrict that portion of Rittenhouse to one-way, going away from Old Forty Foot Road up toward the golf course,” Marino said.
Towamencin’s supervisors are scheduled to next meet at 7:30 p.m. April 8 at the township municipal building, 1090 Troxel Road. For more information visit www.Towamencin.org