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WILKES-BARRE — For bridge projects, rehabbing the one on Strauss Lane is moving fast in Butch Frati’s opinion.
Frati, the director of operations for the city of Wilkes-Barre, announced the award of a $250,000 grant through the state’s Multimodal Transportation Fund program to fix the 44-year-old span in the Goose Island neighborhood that’s been closed for almost a year.
Rehabilitating was the operative word, because if it was to be replaced that could take between 10 to 12 years, Frati told the small group gathered for a public meeting Wednesday afternoon on the project.
“Rehabbing the bridge, we can do now. The engineering is about ready. For all intents and purposes, it’s ready to go. Hopefully in the next two months, it’ll be bid and construction can start shortly thereafter,” Frati said.
If everything falls into place the project could be completed late this year or early next year, Frati said.
The city applied for the grant last year. It agreed to put up a match of approximately $150,000 that will come out of the Liquid Fuels Fund that can be used for road and bridge projects.
A dive team inspecting the bridge uncovered a major problem that prompted its shutdown, Frati said.
Essentially what’s happened is Solomon Creek undermined the bridge abutments, the walls that hold up the concrete beams, explained Dominic Yannuzzi, an engineer and project manager in Alfred Benesch & Co.’s Hazleton office.
“They’re being eroded by the water underneath and we’re going to grout and concrete underneath the abutments to prevent any issues from that,” Yannuzzi said.
In addition the deck will be waterproofed and repaved, he said.
“It takes a lot of abuse because Solomon Creek is such a volatile creek elevation wise,” Frati said.
Mayor Tony George, who attended the meeting, added that a sewer line creates a waterfall that “eats everything away” underneath.
“Won’t that continue to happen unless that’s remedied?” asked Ed Hilla, a Poplar Street resident affected by the bridge closure.
“Hopefully the remedy will fix that,” George replied.
Yannuzzi said the fix will stabilize the structure and prevent further erosion. To replace the sewer line would take more money than what’s available, he said.