By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
Construction on the Canoe Creek Bridge along Interstate 80 in Clarion County and the North Fork Bridge in Jefferson County will not begin until 2023 at the earliest.
That is according to Alice Hammond, assistant district executive for design with PennDOT District 10.
“We have nine candidate bridges and construction will depend on where they are at in the design process,” said Hammond.
Hammond added construction would probably be later than 2023 because of the remaining steps needed to get to the point of being able to start construction.
“The order of construction would depend on the development entity,” said Hammond.
“Two things need to happen,” said Brian Allen, executive director for PennDOT District 10. “We need to get through the impact study and if we can mitigate those, the second thing is to get the packages from the P-3 development group and see if those make sense for the price.”
The Canoe Creek Bridge and the North Fork bridge projects are being evaluated as candidates for bridge tolling as a part of the PennDOT Pathways Major Bridge Public-Private Partnership (P3) Initiative.
The bridge tolling package and construction will depend on when the P3 package would be approved. The tolling plan has met with local opposition.
“Traffic won’t be detoured during construction,” said Hammond, “We will maintain traffic in two lanes in each direction during construction.”
Hammond said currently the eastbound lanes on the North Fork Bridge are parallel with the westbound lanes. “That has led to a higher number of crashes,” she said. “We are going to re-align the east bound lanes with the westbound lanes so the bridges will be right beside each other. There will also be a new westbound bridge.”
Several PennDOT employees met Aug. 11 with local stakeholders in Brookville.
“We are reaching out to the local communities to get their thoughts on the diversion routes that may be affected if tolling goes into place on the North Fork Bridge,” said Allen. “We want to get their feedback on what might happen if a toll goes into place.”
Allen said there is a difference between a diversion and a detour.
“When we shut the Interstate down, all of the traffic would go through town,” he said. “A diversion is the choice people would make to avoid paying the toll.”
Allen said truck traffic, which is 44 percent of the I-80 traffic, would not get off and go on the diversion route to avoid the toll.
“Local traffic may decide to go through the towns to avoid paying the toll,” he said.
According to Jenn Walsh, traffic and planning section manager for District 10, the North Fork diversion route adds a little less than a mile to the trip and in normal traffic conditions, the diversion route adds approximately seven minutes of travel time.
The diversion route is onto U.S. Route 322, (Main Street), in Brookville.
The Canoe Creek in Clarion County diversion route is approximately an additional seven miles with 13 minutes of increased travel time under normal traffic conditions.
That diversion route is through Knox Borough.
Walsh said the miles are above and beyond what a motorist would travel by staying on I-80.
District 10 Community Relations Coordinator Christina Gibbs said, “Once the statewide diversion route workshops are completed, we will be holding a public meeting to share our progress.”
The meeting dates and location will be announced at a later date.