MERCER COUNTY Contractor: Bridge will be torn down, rebuilt

Paliotta says it doesn't need government approval to reconstruct the span.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
MERCER, Pa. -- The contractor on the Oakland Avenue Viaduct replacement project said it is going through with its plan to dismantle and rebuild the span.
Atty. Lewis McEwen, Mercer County solicitor, said he received a fax copy of a letter around noon Friday from the attorney for Carmen Paliotta Contracting Inc. of Library, Pa., the bridge contractor.
The letter said the company is proceeding with plans to dismantle the structure, McEwen said.
The county owns the bridge.
It is uncertain whether the letter meets a demand from the county and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation that the contractor submit a plan for that work before it begins.
McEwen said he sent a copy of the letter to PennDOT to make that determination.
The letter says the county demand that Paliotta have an acceptable corrective plan in place by Dec. 1 is no longer relevant because Paliotta is no longer working on developing such a plan.
Instead, it will proceed with the dismantling and reconstruction, and the county has no right to interfere with the means and methods of that effort, the letter said.
Company workers have been doing general cleanup at the bridge all week in anticipation of the dismantling.
Source of dispute
The $3.6 million project was to be completed in November 2001 but the county, which owns the bridge, stopped work on the job that month after learning of a misalignment that gives the bridge a slight "S" shape.
The county, the contractor and PennDOT have been unsuccessful in coming up with an acceptable correction plan since then.
Paliotta, frustrated with the delays, announced earlier this month that it would take the nearly finished bridge apart, correct any problems with the concrete pedestals suspected of causing the misalignment, and then reconstruct the bridge.
Just who will pay for that extra work, which the company says will be enormous, will be a matter for litigation, the letter warned.
The county has maintained that the misalignment is the contractor's fault and any cost to correct it is the contractor's to bear.
Paliotta contends that some of the eight pedestals have settled because the county directed the company to use stone as a pedestal base rather than concrete as called for in the contract.
The county has denied making any such construction change.
The county has no money tied up in the bridge replacement. The federal government is putting up 80 percent; the state is covering the rest. Paliotta has already been paid $2.9 million on the contract.
gwin@vindy.com