SHARON County answers bridge concerns

Commissioners agreed to try to set a meeting with PennDOT.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- There is no quick solution to the engineering problem on the Oakland Avenue Viaduct, county officials told Sharon City Council members and residents.
Shirley Gagliardi of Sharon presented Mercer County commissioners and county Engineer Mark Miller with about 1,200 signatures on a petition from Sharon Concerned Citizens of Viaduct Completion calling the lack of progress on the structure "intolerable and inexcusable" and asking that the "fiasco" be resolved.
Gagliardi said one of the main concerns is that a large number of children who would normally cross the viaduct on their way to school now have to cross a four-lane highway. She also criticized officials for failing to block the bridge. This has resulted in youths' climbing over the barriers and creates the potential for an accident, she said. She asked for a time frame for bridge completion.
But Miller and the commissioners said that the timetable is out of their hands and that they are as frustrated as the residents.
Ongoing studies
Miller said voluminous studies of the bridge have already been completed but more are being conducted. Once they are finished, they will be sent to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which will decide how to proceed.
No one would estimate how long that will take.
The county cannot force the issue, commissioners said. And they must abide by PennDOT's rules in order to receive state reimbursement for legal costs, should any court action be filed over the matter, Miller said.
Commissioner Gene Brenneman agreed, saying, "We are just a conduit of money. We have no authority to impose anything on that bridge."
The bridge is funded with 80 percent federal and 20 percent state funds.
Bob Stewart of Sharon asked why pedestrian traffic could not be allowed on the bridge during the interim. Miller said that it would not be safe and that the site is under the control of Carmen Paliotta Contracting of Library, Pa., the bridge contractor.
Commissioners did agree to try to set a meeting between PennDOT and Sharon city officials in the near future.
City officials at meeting
Mayor David Ryan and several city council members attended the commissioners meeting. Fred Hoffman, Sharon City Council president, said the city is spending "a lot of money" on an extra crossing guard who was hired because of the number of children who are being diverted. Commissioner Kenneth Seamans said he checked to see if existing grant money could be used to pay a sheriff's deputy to guard the crossing, but found it cannot.
Mayor Ryan said he realizes that the matter is largely out of the commissioners' hands. But he said Sharon citizens are angry and want action.
Brenneman said commissioners will "keep pushing PennDOT" to set a meeting.
Construction on the bridge, originally slated for completion in November 2001, was halted after it was about 75 percent complete because of a misalignment, which gives it a slight "S" shape. The tests are to determine how the misalignment would affect bridge safety and maintenance.