With spring weather blending into the tail end of winter, work
has resumed on the U.S. Route 219 Bradford bypass rehabilitation
project.
Dale Anderson, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation project
inspector, said workers started Monday after breaking for the
winter months.
This week, traffic control signs and barrels will be out on the
road, getting ready to close Route 219 northbound on Wednesday,
Anderson said.
The $28 million project will repair roughly four miles of the
highway from the City of Bradford to the New York state line,
Anderson said. Last year, the project, contracted by Glenn O.
Hawbaker Inc., of State College, repaired the southbound side of
the highway and a portion of South Kendall Avenue.
“(The project) is to upgrade the infrastructure of the bypass,”
Anderson said, which he added “is very deteriorated at this
point.”
Although work is weather dependent, Anderson said he planned for
work to be completed by October.
The work on Route 219 will mirror the work last year that
started in March, Anderson said. Road crews will tear up the
pavement and resurface the road on the northbound side of the
highway from Elm Street in Bradford to Hillside Drive in New York
state.
Since the northbound side of the highway will be repaired,
northbound traffic will share the southbound side of the highway,
he said. Two-lane traffic will be restricted to one lane.
There will be three crossovers for drivers attempting to get on
and off Route 219, Anderson said. They will be at the Kendall
Avenue interchange; between Bolivar Drive and Kendall Avenue; and
at the New York state line.
“Access will be better this year,” Anderson said. He added that
since the South Kendall Avenue project is finished, there will no
longer be lengthy detours.
However, crews plan to close both ramps at Foster Brook for
repairs, Anderson said, which may cause more traffic on Kendall
Avenue.
Along with those ramps, several bridges will be repaired,
including at Bolivar Drive, over the Tunungwant Creek and one at
the Buffalo and Pittsburgh Railroad near the New York state line,
Anderson said, with the bridge at Tuna Cross Road requiring the
most extensive work.
Anderson said a PennDOT bridge unit, which inspects bridges
every few years, determined the Tuna Cross Road bridge to be in
need of extensive repairs. Crews will replace the deck and concrete
beams of the bridge.
The Bolivar Drive bridge will get a new deck, while other
bridges will get new expansion dams and latex finishing, Anderson
said. These improvements will allow the bridge to expand and
contract with fluctuations in temperature.
The deterioration of these dams causes cars to make a thumping
noise while driving over them, Anderson said.
Throughout the project, PennDOT has made several improvements to
monitor roads and inform drivers of road conditions.
New signs and two permanent message boards have been installed,
Anderson said. The message boards are located at Tuna Cross Road
and by the Penn-Brad Oil Museum in Custer City.
Also, a highway advisory radio system was installed in the
infield of the Foster Brook southbound ramp, Anderson said. Two
blinking lights will notify drivers to tune to 1610 AM for details
on detours.
The message board and the radio system can be remotely accessed
through the PennDOT Traffic Management Center in Clearfield,
Anderson said. They will be used to notify drivers in the case of
an accident, emergency or detour.
At the end of December, crews installed video cameras at Owens
Way, Forman Street, Elm Street, Mill Street, Kendall Avenue,
Bolivar Drive and Tuna Cross Road, Anderson said. The cameras are
used to monitor the roads for accidents or emergencies.
Marla Fannin, PennDOT community relations coordinator, said
recently that the cameras must be continuously operational for a
month before they can be streamed live on the PennDOT Web site.
However, they haven’t done that thus far.
