Mar 6, 2013

A Question Of Priorities

Recently Dan Hartzell, traffic columnist for The Morning Call, wrote that the 15th Bridge construction is ahead of schedule. Dan's not much for controversy. His easy light column is based on asking the spokesman at PennDot a question, then paraphrasing the answer into a column. PennDot, Allentown, nor anything, is ever criticized; Easy light for the long haul. I suppose the six men working on the bridge are on schedule. In the four months since the photograph above was taken, they have completed one of six piers necessary for the bridge. Meanwhile, the 100 plus men working on the arena have laid over 200 times more concrete, practically completing the arena foundation around a square block. While the arena will benefit J.B Reilly and the two brothers who own the hockey team, 30,000 residents of south side Allentown are inconvenienced by the snail pace of the bridge construction. It's a question of priorities.

4 comments:

  1. Mike,

    I found his reporting curious. I have to concur with your observation that there appears to be almost always very little activity at that construction site. I hope it is completed on time but have my doubts.

    Scott Armstrong

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  2. scott, once a year penndot has public input, to meet it's legal requirement. needless to say, nobody knows or bothers, but i did; i read them the riot act (this was years ago). although hartzell was there, and reported that they held the meeting, he didn't write one word about my presentation. i then realized that he is dependent on their spokesman for the information he uses in his column, and is careful never to offend. the lack of men and equipment on that bridge project is pitiful. pawlowski should be hollering about that, instead he hangs banners at the arena site. schreibers bridge is being destroyed by over use in the meantime. they should close it, and force all traffic over the s. 10th street bridge.

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  3. Ribbon-cutting ceremonies at bridges are nice ...

    ... but grand openings for Palaces of Sport are even better.

    Shaibu!

    VIKTOR TIKHONOV

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  4. Mike,

    I encourage anyone who doubts our observations to go to the site as often as possible, see for themselves, then report back.
    Perhaps the plan is to turn the site into a beehive of activity in the summer but unless that happens one has to be skeptical of the published completion date.

    Scott Armstrong

    ReplyDelete

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