Published: June 13, 2009 11:46 pm      

Adams Township plans detour during bridge replacement

SOUTH FORK — Replacing an Adams Township bridge will close the only road access to about two dozen homes and a business in the Amsite Road development.

Residents are not concerned because the township has announced plans to reopen a second access point.

A new culvert pipe will be installed and existing guide rails removed to reconnect dead-end Harley Street to Route 869 just east of the Ragers Hill Road intersection

“It is no problem at all,” William Keller said outside his Harley Street home. “I just get to see more traffic.”

The solution is not new. The same issue came up when the 1977 Flood washed out the end of Amsite Road.

“This whole road was washed out,” Hillegas Bus Service representative Douglas Yamrose recalled, standing on the Amsite Road bridge.

“When the flood hit, both sides of this road were totally destroyed. In two days they had that other road opened up.”

The bridge over a small tributary to the South Fork of Little Conemaugh River survived the flood, but has now become structurally deficient.

Township supervisors last week awarded the EADs Group of Altoona and Somerset a contract to design and oversee the bridge replacement, now expected to be done during the summer of 2010. The estimated $730,000 cost will be split 80-15-5 percent by the federal, state and township governments under the Federal Aid Bridge Project.

Supervisors want to schedule construction during Forest Hills School District’s summer vacation to reduce inconvenience for the Hillegas Bus Service, Chairman William “B.J.” Smith said.

“The township has been really good,” Yamrose said. “They even assisted in getting a permit for the buses to use the bridge.”

Currently, the bridge is under reduced weight restrictions. Empty buses can use it because only one axle is on the short bridge at any time, he explained.