Rehabilitations planned for Upper Delaware bridges 

Posted 6/5/19

REGION — While no capital construction work on the Upper Delaware River’s 10 interstate bridges is scheduled this summer, the Department of Transportation is gearing up to issue contracts …

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Rehabilitations planned for Upper Delaware bridges 

Posted

REGION — While no capital construction work on the Upper Delaware River’s 10 interstate bridges is scheduled this summer, the Department of Transportation is gearing up to issue contracts in 2020 for major rehabilitations of two other bridges in the area.

Work on the 1953 Cochecton, NY-Damascus, PA and the 1961 Callicoon, NY-Damascus, PA Bridges will commence in 2021.

More immediately, a field meeting is set for June 13 to consider options for the 1901 Skinners Falls, NY-Milanville, PA Bridge after an April 16 inspection revealed open cracks in the NY side abutment, damaged deck boards and two ineffective sway-bracing members.

With a full rehabilitation estimate pegged at $15 million for the historic truss structure, engineers are debating whether to replace the entire single-lane timber deck system instead. While that cost wasn’t provided, it could be put out to bid in the fall of 2019 or spring of 2020.

The New York-Pennsylvania Joint Interstate Bridge Commission held its annual meeting in Binghamton on May 29.

Recently-appointed New York State Department of Transportation (NYS DOT) Region 9 Director Nicolas “Nick” Choubah presided over the business.

The Commission approved $600,000 in contracts for April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020, including $400,000 for final design of the Cochecton-Damascus Bridge and $200,000 for the Skinners Falls-Milanville Bridge repair project.

Preliminary design work for rehabilitation and painting of the 1939 Port Jervis, NY-Matamoras, PA Bridge was also authorized on the schedule, but at zero dollars since the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) will handle it in-house. A total of $33,128 was spent to maintain that bridge in Fiscal Year 2018.

 The highest expense for general maintenance among all 10 bridges was $60,812 spent in FY 2018 and $53,000 approved in FY 2019 for the Callicoon-Damascus Bridge.

NYS DOT Assistant Regional Bridge Maintenance Engineer Mike Ford said, “The bridge is in very poor shape, so it’s just an ongoing battle.”

This year’s inspection found large spalled areas with exposed and missing rebar on the substructure, bridge joint deterioration at all piers, a large spall in the upstream PA wing wall, scupper grate section loss, significant pavement deterioration with large pot holes in the deck that are retaining water, the steel paint system failing, many cracks on the wearing surface and pavement, asphalt in need of repair at the curb line, and the sidewalk rail and guiderail damaged.

Contract letting for the Callicoon-Damascus Bridge is tentatively planned for November of 2020, but first comments from agencies including the National Park Service (NPS) must be addressed and submitted to the Federal Highway Administration for review.

At a 2016 public information meeting, engineers had described plans to replace the superstructure and repair the substructure through a $9.9 million job that was targeted for construction in spring of 2018.

NYS DOT Regional Planning Office Liaison Dave MacEwan said that cost is now estimated at $10.6 million.

news, upper delaware region, department of transportation, bridge rehabilitation, nysdot, pennDOT

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