Turnpike bridges

We've seen some impressive, local construction projects over the years, but few match the awesome sight of the building of four new Pa. Turnpike bridges in Parryville.

There are dual bridges being built over the Pohopoco Creek and another pair being constructed over the Lehigh River.

Anyone traveling along Route 248 in Parryville even periodically can't help but notice the enormous piers, the imposing beams, and the incredible workmanship that's bringing travel on the toll road in Northeastern Pennsylvania into the 21st century.

It will probably be another two years before the project - which has a whopping price tag of $101.6 million - is completed.

The spans it is replacing are 52 years old, far newer than the Thomas McCall Memorial Bridge and the Jim Thorpe inner-borough bridge. The latter two, both PennDOT bridges, are slated for replacement but these projects seem to be taking forever to initiate.

The Turnpike bridges have been under construction since December 2008. The massive piers are 11-feet wide at the base and the shafts lock into rock sockets as much as 50 feet deep into the earth's sandstone, siltstone, and quartz. There's reinforced steel cages within the concrete caps.

Two objectives are being met throughout the construction project: the ecological balance in the streams flowing beneath the spans does not appear to have been negatively impacted and the new spans will be utilized before the old ones are razed meaning as little inconvenience as possible to motorists.

So far the only concern seems to be the close proximity of piers to the west-bound driving lanes of Route 248. We're not going to jump to a conclusion on this until we see the finished product.

The old bridges are scheduled to be dismantled in 2012.

The construction of the bridges is one of the largest projects in turnpike history, rivaling the carving of the tunnels through the Blue Mountains in the mid 1950s and again in 1991.

Motorists traveling to the Lehigh Valley area from points north are looking forward to the completion of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, they're in awe with the construction sights leading up to that culmination. It's like nothing many have ever seen before.

By Ron Gower

rgower@tnonline.com