MERCER COUNTY Officials, company argue over costs to repair viaduct

The contractor said trying to devise a repair plan is a waste of time and money.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- Mercer County officials said the Oakland Avenue Viaduct contractor should forget about threats to begin dismantling the unfinished structure and concentrate on meeting the latest deadlines for completing the job.
Olivia Lazor, Mercer County commissioner, said the county was drafting a response Friday to a letter from the attorney representing Carmen Paliotta Contracting Inc. of Library, Pa., in which the company said that it will begin dismantling the bridge Nov. 17, and then rebuild it, suing the county for the additional expense.
The county response will again direct the company to follow the directives and time schedule in an Oct. 31 county letter, Lazor said.
Already paid millions
Paliotta has already been paid $2.9 million for the work completed on the span, she said, adding, "They just can't arbitrarily take down that bridge."
Paliotta's letter expressed frustration with delays in getting an acceptable plan in place to correct a misalignment of the bridge that gives it a slight "S" shape.
The company accused the county and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation of stonewalling efforts to develop such a plan. It says that working on getting a new plan approved by PennDOT by Dec. 1 as spelled out in the Oct. 31 letter from the county "would be an exercise in futility."
Paliotta's letter said the company won't waste any more time or money on a repair plan and, barring a county response to the contrary, will begin tearing down the structure Nov. 17. The company said it will perform tests on the eight concrete pedestals which are believed to be the source of the misalignment problem, reconstruct any faulty pedestals and then re-erect the bridge.
Wants company to pay
The county, which owns the bridge, maintains that any corrective action will be at the expense of Paliotta, but the company said it plans to sue the county to recover that cost.
Mercer County may own the span but the $3.6 million set aside to pay for its replacement came from the state and federal governments, and county officials have said repeatedly that PennDOT is controlling the project.
The bridge was to be replaced in 2001 but the county stopped the work on the structure in November of that year when it became aware of the misalignment.
No more work has been done on the structure since then and it remains closed to all traffic.