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KINGSTON TWP. — For 13 years it has been a bridge to nowhere. Soon that will change — at least a little.
The South Main Street Bridge, just off of Route 309 in Kingston Township, has been through a lot — it was destroyed by flooding of Toby Creek in 2006 and millions were spent to repair it.
However, since the repair project was completed in August of 2017, the bridge has not been used — a large sign on the bridge states it is closed — due to concerns about safety in accessing the busy Route 309.
On Friday, representatives of the township met with representatives from state Sen. Lisa Baker’s office and from state Rep. Aaron Kaufer’s office, along with the township’s engineers.
It was decided that the township will be installing curbing on South Main Street to close off all access to and from Route 309. The officials said this can be accomplished without disrupting the newly paved Route 309.
The work will begin the week of Aug. 19 and it is expected that the bridge will be open to local traffic by mid-September.
There are several curb cuts that lead to homes along Route 309 and Kathleen Sebastian, township manager, said all will be eliminated. She said the homeowners will have to use South Main Street to reach East Center Street to access Route 309.
“If a homeowner wants to keep their access open, they must go through the permitting process,” Sebastian said. “However, they will probably be denied because of the existing access from East Center Street.”
After being closed to traffic for 11 years, the bridge reopened in 2017, but access to Route 309 (Memorial Highway) was halted.
The approximate cost to repair the bridge was $3 million — with roughly $2.4 million federal funding, $580,000 state funds and $39,000 local.
Kingston Township supervisors in 2017 decided to restrict the bridge traffic to only those residents and businesses located on South Main. They cited letters from township solicitor Benjamin Jones III, Police Chief Michael Moravec, and municipal engineers, all stressing the dangers of having the vehicles trying to exit or enter Route 309 from South Main.
At the time, Moravec supported the idea to keep the intersection closed based on the police department’s statistical data showing 31 vehicle crashes at the intersection from July 12, 1996, to May 29, 2006. The chief reported that there were 19 people injured and two fatalities.
South Main will have a two-way traffic pattern that will allow residents who live off a dirt section of the road, which runs parallel to Route 309, to safely enter and exit their properties.
Mark Malacavage and his family have lived on South Main Street since 1999. His house sits almost perpendicular from the curb cut that allows access to Route 309. Malacavage said he agrees with the decision to block access to the highway to and from South Main Street for safety concerns.
“There have been several accidents here,” he said. “We have two daughters. We are always concerned that someone coming off the highway might be traveling too fast. It’s a little bit of an inconvenience, but we can appreciate the concern.”