Luzerne County is no longer pursuing a proposal to temporarily reopen the Firefighters’ Memorial (Water Street) Bridge, shown here from the Pittston side of the Susquehanna River.
Roger DuPuis | Times Leader
Luzerne County officials are giving up on a push to temporarily reopen the county-owned Firefighters’ Memorial Bridge linking West Pittston and Pittston, officials said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recently denied the county’s proposed reopening of the span over the Susquehanna River, and the state has the final say. The county’s consultant, Williamsport-based Larson Design Group, had concluded the county-owned span can safely reopen to traffic at a reduced weight limit for passenger vehicles only.
Commonly known as the Water Street Bridge, the crossing has been closed since August 2021 due to concerns over a bent eyebar, causing traffic on the nearby state-owned Spc. Dale J. Kridlo Bridge (Fort Jenkins) to increase from 12,000 vehicles to 20,000 per day.
The state agreed to assume responsibility for the design and construction of a solution for both bridges — replacing the Water Street span and rehabilitating or replacing the Fort Jenkins one — both keeping their current footprints, officials said.
However, council members pursued temporary reopening of the Water Street bridge because completion of both spans will take years.
After the state rejected temporary reopening of the county-owned bridge, the county set up an April 10 meeting with PennDOT to discuss options.
County Acting Manager Brian Swetz updated council on the meeting outcome during last week’s work session, saying the county would have to complete an estimated $4.5 million in repairs to obtain state clearance to safely reopen the span at a reduced weight limit.
It could take two years for the county to complete that work due to arrangements that would have to be made for permits, design and bidding in addition to the actual rehabilitation, Swetz said.
By that time, the bridge would be nearing demolition because the state is on track to bid out the bridge replacement project in 2025, Swetz said.
“That would really be a waste of money to pay and have that bridge open a short time and then tear it down,” Swetz said.
Swetz said the state made it clear the county-owned span will be replaced as part of the future bridge bundling project. The Fort Jenkins span would be addressed after the new county one is constructed, he said.
“There’s no interest in refurbishing Water Street,” he said.
As a result, the county and state discussed the possibility of demolishing the county bridge sooner instead of waiting for commencement of the new construction, Swetz said.
Swetz said he supports expedited demolition so the county and police won’t have to worry about monitoring illegal public access.
“It won’t look as nice, but we won’t have to worry about people on bikes or kids on the bridge,” Swetz said. “It has to come down anyway.”
Swetz said he is asking the county’s operational services division to work with the state on the required steps to demolish the bridge. He has no timeline and noted the approval process may involve historical clearances due to the age of the structure.
Built in 1914, the Water Street span was last rehabilitated in 1984 and is not designed for today’s traffic loads, a state transportation consultant has said. It would cost $20.5 million to replace the Water Street bridge and $22.5 million to repair it to continue with a 20-ton limit, the state consultant said.
Now that it’s clear the county won’t pursue a temporary opening, Swetz said the county, state, West Pittston and Pittston must work together to determine if there are ways to improve public safety and reduce congestion while Fort Jenkins is the lone crossing.
“Let’s move forward and make it the best it can be,” he said during the work session.
Swetz also emphasized the state’s rejection of the county’s request to reopen its bridge was no reflection on the consultant. He said he had the impression the outcome would have been the same no matter what recommendation was presented to the state.
A key factor was the state’s concern, even with a weight limit, that too many vehicles would be simultaneously on the bridge due to its length (1,016 feet) and the local traffic flow and volume, Swetz said.
County Council members Brian Thornton and Kevin Lescavage, both of West Pittston, participated in the April 10 meeting.
Thornton said he and Lescavage proposed measures to ensure the 6-ton limit recommended by Larson Design was enforced, but the state would not budge.
Both expressed frustration, saying they would not have supported the $280,000 study if the state or anyone else had made it clear it would have no effect.
“I want the public to know county council tried very, very hard to do what we needed to get the bridge opened temporarily,” Thornton said.
“We made a lot of proposals and gave a lot of good ideas, and it didn’t matter,” Lescavage said.
Under the county’s agreement with the state, the county will only pay 5% toward the cost of demolishing and replacing its bridge, with the rest coming from state and federal funding.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
