Completed
State and local officials gathered Wednesday for a ceremony to mark the completion of the new bridge and railroad overpass on Route 19/21 in Morrisville, Franklin Township. Pictured from left, are county commissioners Archie Trader and Blair Zimmerman, state Rep. Pam Snyder and PennDOT District 12 executive Joseph Szczur.
A picture taken in September 2011, about two years before work began to replace the bridge and railroad overpass in Morrisville.
WAYNESBURG – Almost four years of construction wrapped up this week on the replacement of the bridge and railroad overpass on Route 19/21 near Waynesburg.
State and local officials marked the occasion Wednesday morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the parking lot of the Rite Aid at Route 19/21 and Sugar Run Road in Morrisville to commemorate the bridge widening project over Ten Mile Creek.
In addressing the small gathering, Waynesburg Council President Larry Marshall alluded to the impact of the traffic bottleneck that for years faced motorists traveling east out of Waynesburg. Marshall thanked everyone and spoke of the cooperation among the municipalities, the state and state Department of Transportation in bringing the project to fruition.
“I’m tired of people (in the borough) saying they can’t go out to lunch in Franklin Township, because it takes 15 minutes to go out there and 15 minutes to come back,” he said.
Construction of the bridge and overpass was aimed at increasing traffic flow through Morrisville, a one-mile section of highway through a small business district east of Waynesburg where the four-lane road is reduced to one lane in each direction and a turning lane. Replacement of the two-lane Freedom Bridge with a four-lane structure and replacement of the aging railroad overpass was a major part of the traffic improvement project.
“This concept has been kicked around and studied for decades and I’m so proud to stand here today and say behind us is the completed project,” state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, said. “This project is so important and so critical to the businesses downtown and to our county seat and to the businesses here in Morrisville: That traffic is able to flow.”
The project had been aimed at “promoting better traffic flow” as well as improving traffic safety through the Morrisville section of Franklin Township, PennDOT District 12 executive Joseph Szczur said.
Szczur noted the project had been discussed for decades, long before he became district executive 14 years ago. At one time, Szczur said, plans had included making the entire section through Morrisville four lanes with a turning lane. However, that would have forced most of the businesses in Morrisville to relocate and resulted in a negative impact on the local economy, he said.
PennDOT will now focus on investigating what can be done to improve traffic flow along the section of the road where there remains one lane in each direction and a turning lane.
It’s possible, Szczur said, traffic flow can be improved with better traffic monitoring and more coordinated traffic control signals, he said.
Szczur also noted the new bridge was constructed to allow for more water flow beneath it during high water conditions.
The $15.5 million construction project had involved widening Route 19/21 from Arch Street to Sugar Run Road from two to four lanes and replacing Freedom Bridge over Ten Mile Creek and the railroad overpass. A second railroad overpass, that was built to allow trains to continue to use the tracks during construction, was also made permanent.
Construction of the bridge and the nearby overpasses made for a “very complex project,” Szczur said.
The contractor on the project, Gulisek Construction LLC, began work in late 2013 and was originally to have the project completed in the fall of 2016. . However, delays caused primarily by utility relocations pushed the completion date back a year.
During construction, the contractor had, for the most part, been able to maintain traffic. Only twice during the night hours was the intersection closed and a detour used when overpass beams were installed. There were also occasional traffic stops along the road for construction work.
Szczur recognized the many people and companies that had been involved in the project, including a community committee that had been a part of the project planning and the late state Sen. J. Barry Stout, whom, he said, had much to do bring the project to fruition.