SHARON Two sides divided by a bridge

The county will send its demands to the contractor later today, an official said.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- An attorney for Carmen Paliotta Contracting Inc. said the company plans to proceed Monday with plans to begin dismantling and rebuilding the Oakland Avenue Viaduct.
Atty. D. Matthew Jameson III said today that Paliotta hasn't had a response from Mercer County, which owns the bridge, or the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the $3.6 million bridge replacement project, regarding the proposal to dismantle and rebuild as a way to correct a misalignment problem with the structure.
Jameson sent the county a letter Nov. 7 saying Paliotta would take the bridge down, assess the problems with and perhaps replace the concrete base pedestals suspected of causing the misalignment and then reconstruct the bridge.
The letter said the issue of who will pay for the added work will probably be settled in court.
County's response
Mercer County Commissioner Olivia Lazor said this morning that the county and PennDOT will be sending a response to Paliotta later today.
A letter has been drafted and was being reviewed by PennDOT counsel this morning, she said.
The letter basically says that if dismantling and rebuilding the bridge is Paliotta's formal plan for correcting the problem, the contractor must submit details of how the job will be done before work proceeds.
It also spells out that any such work will be at the cost of the contractor, she said.
History
The bridge was to be replaced in 2001 but the county stopped work on the job in November of that year just as Paliotta was preparing to pour the concrete deck on the 300-foot span over the Shenango Valley Freeway.
A misalignment caused by uneven surfaces on some of the eight base pedestals gives the bridge a slight "S" shape, officials have said, noting that it doesn't make the structure unsafe but might shorten its life span.
The county, PennDOT and the contractor have been going back and forth for two years in an effort to find an acceptable method of correcting the problem.