The 8th Street Bridge is one of the marvels of Allentown. It was built to facilitate the Liberty Trolley run, from 8th and Hamilton to Philadelphia. I posted about it before, with its impressive statistics. At the time it was the largest concrete bridge in the world. It involved two business interests of Harry Trexler, both the transit company and the local cement industry.
Harrisburg and The Morning Call have been braying about the bridges scheduled for improvement and replacement in the area. Although, I virtually stopped attending municipal meetings, I still partake in field trips to the local construction sites. I don't announce myself, and try to be quick and quiet on these unauthorized inspections. I would prefer not to vanish like Jimmy Hoffa. I want to inspect the bridge, not end up in the bridge.
On first glance the work on the bridge looks very impressive. The bridge walls have been replaced with new concrete walls, almost identical to the original, even including the lighting pillars. My question is that the roadbed has been raised about 18 inches, but is still supported by the same arches. Eighteen inches of additional concrete on the roadbed and sidewalk is an enormous additional weight load. Furthermore, I have learned that there was bonding issues between the older base and new concrete. Only the approaches, on both ends of the bridge, have been replaced. This was done because they are the lowest part of the bridge, and the most feasible parts to replace. However, they were replaced with pre-stressed concrete beams, and the new arches are only decorative panels. The original approach bases were massive constructions, which probably would have stood another 1000 years.
Only now is the part of the project which I knew to be necessary beginning. The massive bridge arches has been showing spalling damage over the last decades. That is the process where old concrete lets loose from the steel re-bar used as the construction frame.
When the project is completed, I do not expect to be invited to the ribbon cutting.
reprinted from July of 2016
ADDENDUM: The second iconic concrete bridge, the Tilghman Street Bridge, is now undergoing a similar reconstruction process. That project is considerably behind schedule, penalizing both residents and businesses on Union Blvd. Although I have done some photo recon, I have not interviewed workers as I did on the 8th Street project.
The reason for this reprint is my doubts about the huge Infrastructure Spending Bill that our local politicans are patting themselves on the back about. In slower times the taxpayer money is seldom put to the best use. With all this money there is no project to widen Rt. 22, sorely needed now for two decades. Instead, our portion will build a new road along the Lehigh, only duplicating Front Street a block parallel. Another ribbon cutting I won't be invited to.
Bridge reopening now scheduled for May, extending the closure for 52 months.
The Tilghman Street bridge project has been a fiasco. There has been little to no reporting for the cause of the delayed re-opening. What we do know is Wolf's idiotic choice to stop construction during for several months during the initial wave of covid was one set back, but certainly not the only one. Love to know what they were.
ReplyDeleteOn the bridges:
ReplyDeleteI haven't walked across the 8th Street Bridge yet this year, but the last time I did, the sidewalk was filled with litter, broken glass, and other debris. While I understand the need for the safety barriers between the roadway and sidewalk, it needs regular maintenance.
But I've seen no evidence that the city recognizes the need for regular maintenance yet. That's ironic, given that the city makes me move my car once a week so the streets can be cleaned. I would think the sidewalks on that Bridge (used regularly by school kids) deserve the same attention.
As mentioned, the Tilghman Street Bridge has been a fiasco. All bridge repair projects are taking too long. The state/county/city needs to find a way to repair or replace bridges faster. If we had a natural disaster that took out all of our bridges, would we tolerate the snail pace taken for these repairs? We're not talking about completely new bridges - we're talking about repairing or replacing existing ones.
To me, it's criminal that any bridge repair contract is awarded without expedited timelines and severe penalties to the contractors for failing to meet them.
Allentown is constantly trying to narrow their contractor pool to only union labor (in addition to pro-union federal and PA laws), and this is another way that we pay for such laws. Fewer contractors equal higher costs and higher wait times.
While I don't see it in this post, I don't think that the original construction of the Eighth Street Bridge took as long as the repairs to either bridge.