Main Street Bridge to close Aug. 15

The closure of the Main Street Bridge in Slatington and Walnutport for repairs has been postponed.

Originally scheduled to close Tuesday, the closure has now been delayed until Aug. 15, said Sean Brown, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation spokesman.

Brown said the date was pushed back due to the contractor’s schedule.

The bridge over the Lehigh River that connects the two boroughs will be closed for deck replacement, as the deck has been rated as poor.

It will be replaced with a 48.5-foot-wide, 419-foot-long deck. The deck is originally from 1969.

The Main Street Bridge is one of four in the Lehigh Valley being repaired under a $2.5 million contract.

Work on the bridges include repairing steel, decks, beams, bearings, joints, and scour countermeasures for the bridges over waterways.

The general contractor to repair the bridges is H&K Group, of Skippack, Montgomery County.

Once the Main Street Bridge project gets underway, Main Street will be closed and detoured between Route 873/Walnut Street in Slatington and Railroad Street in Walnutport.

Traffic will be detoured on Route 873 (North Walnut Street), Route 145 (Riverview Drive/North Best Avenue), and Route 248 (POW/MIA Remembrance Highway).

The bridge is estimated to be opened in October.

This section of Main Street has an average daily traffic volume of 10,015 vehicles.

Although the bridge will be closed to vehicles, plans have been made so that emergency medical services will still be able to use it.

Pedestrian access will be maintained on the bridge during the deck replacement.

Once the detour is in place, PennDOT will monitor traffic signals and adjust them if they see things aren’t working smoothly.

The deck replacement project will have an impact on student transportation, according to Northern Lehigh School District Superintendent Matthew Link.

Link previously said about 18 district vehicles, buses, minibuses and vans will have to use the detour through the Lehigh Gap, which will add travel time to each of those runs in the morning and afternoon. Some buses will add more than an hour travel time, cumulatively, he said.

The detour will use Routes 873, 248 and 145.

Due to the closure, LANtaBus Route 325 will be unable to service Walnutport, effective Monday.

During the closure, LANtaFlex Route 503 will be operating under expanded hours to allow service between Slatington and Walnutport.

LANtaFlex is a reservation-based, shared-ride curb-to-curb service that is open to the public.

Route 503, the Walnutport-Slatington Flex, will be operating from 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

The following stops are unable to be served during the construction period:

Stop ID/Location

• 5895, 5943 Main and Canal streets

• 5894, 5942 Main and Cherry streets

• 4092, 5949 Main Street and Route 145

• 5941, Kmart to Walnutport

For reservations, call 888-287-8818. Reservation agents are available to take calls from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Reservations must be made at least one day before the date of travel (or the previous Friday for Monday trips) and no more than 14 days in advance. Repeat trips can be set up as needed.

For more information regarding LANtaFlex service, visit http://www.lantabus.com/routes-and-schedules/route-503.

The bridge is one of four in the Lehigh Valley being repaired under a $2.5 million contract.