PennDOT Orders Immediate Traffic Changes at Citizens Bridge Intersection
PennDOT District 10 Incident Coordinator Michael Shanshala III describes changes in traffic patterns at the intersection of Market and Water Streets in downtown Kittanning that will be in effect beginning Wednesday night until the sink hole is repaired.
Borough, county, and state officials met Wednesday afternoon for nearly two hours to discuss the next step in fixing a large sink hole that is at the intersection of the Citizen’s Bridge in downtown Kittanning.
The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Council Chambers in Kittanning’s Borough Building, but it was moved to the Armstrong County Planning and Development Office.
The hole was discovered earlier this month when construction workers attempted to excavate a two-foot wide ditch across the south side of the intersection between Market Street and the bridge. A hole approximately the size of a basketball appeared and a project team was called to inspect.
A video crew was brought in on Tuesday to place a camera in the hole to collect data and to make sure no sewer lines caused the problem.
Several pipes were discovered in the hole, but appeared to be from a period years ago when the sanitary and storm sewers ran together. It appeared the lines were abandoned but never removed. Borough and Municipal Authority workers conducted smoke tests and nothing appeared from the lines in the hole, further giving credence to the hypothesis.
A plan began to form as the consensus of the group was to cut a larger hole in the surface of the roadway exposing the inner hole. Once opened, a type of concrete that is thin enough to pour and flow into the cracks of the sink hole and seal it will be used.
To finance the project, Armstrong County Commissioners pledged $1,000 in the form of a county aid grant to pay for the saw-cut to open the hole. The remainder of the repair would be paid for through funding from the revitalization grant.
Senate Engineering Project Manager Phil Herman described the plan of action.
“Tomorrow (Thursday) around eight o’clock, we will be saw-cutting the roadway in the limits of the cavity. We will access the cavity with OSHA-approved procedures. We are going to determine the extent of the cavity and confirm that there are no existing utility or other unknowns that we are not currently aware of. Then we are going to fill the cavity with a flow-able fill material, which is basically a low-strength concrete. Then we will allow it to cure and hopefully we will be open up to traffic early afternoon Thursday.”
Herman said there is a backup plan if there is a reason the concrete mixture is not available.
“In the event that we can’t place the material, we are going to steel plate the roadway in the hopes of safely opening up the roadway to the traveling public,” he said.
When asked about having repairs completed and the streets open for Light Up Kittanning Night this Friday, Herman was optimistic.
“We hope so,” he said.
Local News | David Croyle November 19, 2015
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