The Morning Call's Road Warrior, Dan Hartzell, has discovered the WPA. His article today explains the progress, or lack of, concerning the wall in Lehigh Parkway. Like my article four months ago, he interviewed Rich Young, head of public works. Although Dan learned nothing new that my readers didn't know about the wall, he does mention that city is waking up about our WPA treasures. I don't know how Dan got to the Parkway for his photo, but he probably had to cross Schreiber's Bridge. The condition of that bridge is the real road story needing his attention. When I had interviewed Young, although the western approach wall on the north side of the bridge had just been rebuilt, the eastern approach wall had also been smashed. Young acknowledged that this damage was caused by trucks trying to make the turn onto Martin Luther King Drive. The rebuilt western wall approach has again been smashed. Although the bridge is weight restricted, the trucks are ignoring the sign. Allentown can install dozens of security cameras downtown, but not one to protect our bridge built in 1828. I invite Hartzell to join my tour of the Parkway WPA structures on April 6th. If he shows up, I'll suggest that he read and copy my reports about Schreiber's Bridge.
Feb 18, 2013
Dan Hartzell Discovers WPA
The Morning Call's Road Warrior, Dan Hartzell, has discovered the WPA. His article today explains the progress, or lack of, concerning the wall in Lehigh Parkway. Like my article four months ago, he interviewed Rich Young, head of public works. Although Dan learned nothing new that my readers didn't know about the wall, he does mention that city is waking up about our WPA treasures. I don't know how Dan got to the Parkway for his photo, but he probably had to cross Schreiber's Bridge. The condition of that bridge is the real road story needing his attention. When I had interviewed Young, although the western approach wall on the north side of the bridge had just been rebuilt, the eastern approach wall had also been smashed. Young acknowledged that this damage was caused by trucks trying to make the turn onto Martin Luther King Drive. The rebuilt western wall approach has again been smashed. Although the bridge is weight restricted, the trucks are ignoring the sign. Allentown can install dozens of security cameras downtown, but not one to protect our bridge built in 1828. I invite Hartzell to join my tour of the Parkway WPA structures on April 6th. If he shows up, I'll suggest that he read and copy my reports about Schreiber's Bridge.
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Mike,
ReplyDeleteI am certainly no expert at bridge construction but it does seem logical to conclude that having more than a few people on the job site would speed up the process to completion. In the meantime as you have repeatedly pointed out the historic bridge is taking a real beating. By the way this was a main artery and the detour is a huge inconvenience to the many people accustomed to using Ward Street.
Scott Armstrong
When I saw Dan's name in your headline my eyes 'hit the breaks' and forced me to 'swerve' .....lol
ReplyDeleteThis is not a picture of this wall today or even a week ago MM¿ Looks to me that picture was taken when the wall was first built. Just trollin MM
ReplyDeleteREDD
shown in the picture is the step structure coming down from the wall to the bridle path. the portion of the wall which is canted is along the road, near the entrance. this picture was taken about three years ago.
ReplyDelete