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Bridge to Camelback Being Repaired

POCONO TOWNSHIP — Bridge work on a busy tourist road in the Poconos is underway. The bridge on Camelback Mountain Road in Pocono Township is traveled on b...
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POCONO TOWNSHIP — Bridge work on a busy tourist road in the Poconos is underway.

The bridge on Camelback Mountain Road in Pocono Township is traveled on by more than one million people each year. It’s now being repaired and down to one lane.

The bridge is the only way in and out of Camelback Mountain Resort, a major tourist attraction.

“We are just happy that they were very accommodating and going on our shoulder season, so doing the work after Camelbeach season and before we get to winter,” said Dru Brooks, Camelback Mountain Resort.

Construction on the bridge began this week. Crews shut down one lane of traffic and installed two temporary traffic lights. Work has been broken down into two phases.

Phase one will fix one side of the bridge and end by Thanksgiving, and then two lanes will open back up. This way the winter tourist traffic won’t be disrupted.

“We drive quite a few people down that road so it would make an impact and could be uncomfortable but that’s definitely why we are happy it’s happening now.”

For both the resort and other businesses on this road, it was very important that construction work didn’t start until after Labor Day, and as long as phase one is wrapped up by the time the winter traffic comes in, then everything should be OK.

“A large part of the economy runs, comes here on the hill, so you know it is a big deal that they scheduled it around and it’s nice to see that they took the time to do that,” said business owner Dan Martinell.

But for some who live right near the bridge work, their opinion is a little different.

Michael Cabot understands it needs to be done; he just wishes it wasn’t so loud.

“The people that work it banging hammers and backing up equipment at 7 in the morning, I can do without that, but the actual light that’s here, it stops people from whizzing by.”

Phase two is expected to pick up this spring and continue through Memorial Day of 2017.

The bridge work is part of a multi-million dollar bridge reconstruction project being done throughout the state by PennDOT.

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