Oakland Cemetery Bridge Rehab Postponed

by Jonathan Weaver

Plans to rehabilitate a Manor Township bridge in 2017 have been postponed.

Manor Township Secretary/Treasurer Jill Davis informed supervisors earlier this month that the Oakland Cemetery bridge project – which connects Manor Township and Bethel Township by way of Route 66 over Crooked Creek – has been delayed.

Earlier this year, PennDOT District 10 Project Manager Ray Smith said rehabbing the bridge - which carries about 6,000 motorists daily - was originally scheduled for construction in April.

“The deck is deteriorating,” Smith said.

At that time, Smith said District 10 personnel have been working on the Oakland Cemetery bridge for close to a year.

District 10 personnel hoped for the bridge to be complete by September/October of 2017, but private contractors weren’t scheduled to bid on the project until later this fall.

“It varies (how many contractors will bid on the project),” Smith said. “There can be a few (or) there can be many that bid on it.”

An individual schedule to break down Phase 1 and Phase II has also not been decided.

A few homeowners in the direct vicinity of the bridge will receive temporary driveways during the project, but all motorists should prepare for the project.

“Most of the project will be controlled by temporary signals. To finish the deck, we’ll have about a 7-10 day detour,” Smith said.

The bridge reconstruction is expected to cost $4-7 million via the Transportation Improvement Program.

Oakland Cemetery Bridge is one of about 370 State-owned bridges more than eight feet in length in Armstrong County and one of the 25,000 State-owned bridge in total.

The bridge opened in 1970 and was declared “structurally deficient.”

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