SHARON Action on fixing viaduct remains in the works

PennDOT is expected to set a final timetable for the project's completion.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- Officials aren't saying much yet about a meeting on the status of the unfinished Oakland Avenue Viaduct, but the consensus seems to be that no quick action on the bridge is expected.
County and city officials journeyed Friday to the offices of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in Oil City in hopes of finding out when the project, which has been delayed for two years, will be completed.
"I don't think the news was very good," said Kenneth Seamans, Mercer County commissioner and the county's liaison on this project.
There's no quick resolution to the problem with the bridge, he said, noting that PennDOT will set a timetable for correcting the structure's alignment problem.
He referred further questions to Mark Miller, Mercer County's bridge engineer.
Still planning
Miller said PennDOT "is charting a course" for correcting the problem with the 300-foot span. The county will put out a news release on the PennDOT meeting later this week, he said.
Mayor David O. Ryan agreed that little new information came out of the meeting.
The mayor has said in the past that it appears the whole issue will eventually end up in court.
PennDOT is overseeing the bridge project, putting up 20 percent of the $3.6 million project cost. The federal government is putting up the rest.
Carmen Paliotta Contracting Inc. of Library, Pa., won the contract to tear down the old bridge and put up a new one.
Flaw in alignment
The job was to be finished in November 2001, but the county halted work on the project after learning of the misalignment that gives the bridge a slight "S" shape.
The county, PennDOT and the contractor have been trying to find a way to correct the misalignment ever since.
The problem stems from the placing of concrete pedestals supporting the bridge. The pedestal tops are not even, and that causes misalignment at the bridge deck level.
The latest PennDOT version of a correction plan calls for actual replacement of the pedestals, a difficult task because the bridge was nearly finished when the county stopped the work.
The county blames the contractor for the problem, but the contractor said it was a county bridge inspector who told workers setting the pedestals to put stone beneath them instead of concrete as called for in the contract. The stone settled, and the pedestals moved with it, the contractor said.
County officials have denied that accusation, saying there is no documentation anywhere of such a change order.