Construction on the Route 209 Beaver Run bridge in Mahoning Township began ahead of the April 3 start date.

Wednesday afternoon the Packerton Dip stretch between Lehighton and Jim Thorpe was turned into a one-lane road to finish the third stage of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Rapid Bridge Replacement Project.According to a traffic study, roughly 11,500 vehicles travel the bridge daily. The bridge was built in 1937.“We chose to do the work in stages, rather than close the bridge,” said Rory McGlasson of Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners, who is teaming with PennDOT.Through the project, PennDOT will remove two of Carbon County’s structurally deficient bridges, including the Quakake Road bridge in Packer Township, to begin this summer.Both bridges in this project will be constructed with a precast concrete box culvert.Because of the standardized designs and prefabrication of the materials off-site, construction time will be shortened.The Beaver Run bridge replacement is expected to be completed by September. The project was originally scheduled to be finished by the end of March, but a new schedule was issued with the completion date changed to early fall.“We have really strict deadlines, and if we miss them, we are heavily penalized,” McGlasson said.The Carbon County bridges are two out of the 558 bridges being replaced under the Rapid Bridge Replacement Project.McGlasson said due to the deteriorated substructure, the Beaver Run bridge was included in the list of bridges set to be replaced in the state.PennDOT has designated $900 million statewide for the project, with 53 bridges already completed in the past year.The Rapid Bridge Replacement Project is a public-private partnership designed to support PennDOT’s work addressing the 4,200 deficient bridges in the state. In 2013 the plan was approved by the Public-Private Transportation Partnership Board followed in 2014 by Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners being selected as PennDOT’s private partner.Plenary Walsh Keystone Partners is financing, designing and will construct and maintain the bridges for the next 28 years.Construction started in the summer of 2015 with all bridges having to be finished in 36 months. PennDOT will hold the ownership of the bridges.An estimated 18 percent of Pennsylvania’s bridges are structurally deficient compared to the 7.3 percent national average.