SCRANTON -- PennDOT is about half way through the biggest bridge project the city of Scranton has seen in almost a century. But if you use the Harrison Avenue bridge it may not seem like work crews are that far along.
You may not have seen the work going on in Scranton because most of it is going on 150 feet below the road. The new bridge will replace one about 90 years old that goes over the Roaring Brook gorge.
Imagine if your commute to work was 150 feet down into a gorge. For the crews working on the new Harrison Avenue bridge in Scranton, they first had to build an access to the office they'll have for three years.
Then they had to scale back a cliff, build a few steel walls, and bring all the heavy equipment down. Once you're down there you can see these workers have a tough act to follow. The old Harrison Avenue bridge was built in the 1920s and is an architectural feat.
Some parts of the old bridge aren't so attractive anymore. The abutments will stay when the bridge is taken down, but PennDOT plans to cover them up with decorative stone so the new bridge sort of looks like it's 100 years old.
Those finishing touches will be up to a design team. Right now, crews are preparing to install supports. Those supports will go 30 feet below Roaring Brook and then 150 feet into the air.
"You think, that was phenomenal that they were able to build this bridge with the tools and the technology that they had in the early 1920s," said PennDOT spokesperson James May.
"It just amazes me that they did get it done without all that stuff. It was just a bunch of hard-working people who were here in this valley," added Don Paciorka, who lives on Harrison Avenue.
Paciorka has looked at the old bridge from street level his whole life. He's among those who wonder what's going on so many feet below.
PennDOT engineers say it's a lot more than meets the eye.
"The key thing with any bridge project is trying to get it out of the ground. Once we get it out of the ground and the piers start going up, everything starts to click together," said Pat McCabe, lead engineer for the project.
Plans are to have the new Harrison Avenue bridge complete by the end of the construction season in 2017.
