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Power to Save: Painting the Bridge, Protecting the Creek

RALPHO TOWNSHIP — Just like most paint jobs around the house, when you go and paint a bridge, you remove the old paint first. In Northumberland County, co...

RALPHO TOWNSHIP -- Just like most paint jobs around the house, when you go and paint a bridge, you remove the old paint first. In Northumberland County, contractors have to take special steps so the lead in the old paint doesn't get into the air or water.

The Route 487 Bridge near Paxinos takes drivers over the Shamokin Creek, and it is a busy roadway.

According to PennDOT, this bridge and several others are in need of a face lift. The bridges will be repainted.

"Four bridges we do. Two of them are in this area. Two of them are nearby," Ross Likouris said.

Before the bridges can be repainted, there are safety steps crews must take. Ross Likouris is the contractor for the project and says they need to make sure when they remove the old paint from the bridge, the lead does not go into the creek or the air. The crew set up these tarps to catch the lead and other debris.

"We vacuum all the debris, recycle, reuse the grit and then the waste goes into the big bags and goes to a landfill where the state wants us to take it," Likouris said.

Likouris says the entire process takes about two weeks. This week the crew set things up and is monitoring the air quality.

"We try not to have any pollution. That's the reason we do what we do now," Likouris said.

While the sandblasting is hard, the contractor says making sure the project is safe is the toughest part.

The contractor says the easiest part of this entire process is the main reason they came here in the first place: repainting the bridge.

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