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By MICHAEL McNARNEY [email protected]
Saturday, August 10, 2002 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – Proffering coffee and donuts to reporters and construction
workers, Mayor Tom McGroarty said Friday morning that the Scott Street bridge
will be replaced and reopened by winter.
McGroarty brought Tom Lawson of Borton-Lawson Engineering and David Osborne
of Ceco Associates, a Scranton engineering firm, as well as City Administrator
Jim Hayward and Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney, to meet with reporters in
the Silver Queen restaurant parking lot, adjacent to the bridge.
Workers have not started on the bridge; they have been boring under Coal
Brook to drive through 14-inch and 20-inch water mains.
The Pennsylvania-American Water Co. is paying for the main work, McGroarty
said, to the tune of $164,000.
The new bridge is costing taxpayers almost $1.1 million, according to state
documents. Fabcor Inc. of Jessup was the lowest bidder at $785,557.
Engineering and design costs – including payments to Borton-Lawson and to Ceco
– have consumed the rest of the project’s budget.
The federal government is paying $877,600, according to state documents,
and the state is paying $150,750. The rest, about $70,000, is being paid by
the city.
On Friday, workers were descending into 27-foot deep holes where the new
water mains are being built. The huge holes – one is 40 feet long and 16 feet
wide – are on either side of the bridge, which is still in place.
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.