A local state representative has raised concerns over public safety and work delays relating to the replacement of the Route 248 bridge in Carbon County.

State Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, sent a letter to state Department of Transportation secretary Leslie Richards detailing his frustration with the project.

Work on the bridge will cost about $1.1 million, and is part of a $5.9 million contract awarded to Kriger Construction Inc. of Scranton to replace 13 bridges in three counties.

The bridge carries Route 248 over Norfolk Southern Rail lines and was built in 1962.

PennDOT announced in July that the Route 248 bridge project was expected to be completed in November.

“For several months, I have been outspoken about the poor road conditions on State Route 248,” Heffley wrote in his letter. “This route, the main thoroughfare connecting Carbon County to the Lehigh Valley, has been under construction since early spring, and has not been worked on since June.

Heffley added, “Considering that road and bridge construction can only be done during certain months of the year, the fact that the contractor has left the work site unchanged for the last four months of the year in which construction can occur, is unsettling to say the least.

“While motorists remain frustrated over prolonged construction projects far exceeding the expected completion date, concerns have now become safety related. Inevitably, snow and sleet will begin to fall soon, as it does every year.”

Heffley asked what will be done about the several foot gap in-between the bridge and the earth, as it appears that a car, or truck, could easily slide off the road in poor weather/visibility and be subject to much greater harm than would normally be expected; and what will happen when the snow removal trucks come through and bury the orange construction markers (traffic channelizers), limiting the awareness of the motorists to proceed under caution?

“As I had been assured, on numerous occasions, this project was supposed to have been completed in October,” he states in his letter.

“Then, the completion date was pushed back to November. Realistically, what is PennDOT’s plan to control and address this project during the winter months?

“While I have dire safety concerns, I am also troubled in relation to the contract that was awarded for this project,” Heffley states in his letter.

“It is unacceptable to change traffic patterns, create congestion, and pose a safety concern to motorists over a four-month time period where no work has been completed.”

Heffley then questioned the reason behind the delay in the completion of the contract and whether the contractor will be held financially, or otherwise, responsible; who wrote the specific contract, who approved the contract and awarded the project to the construction firm, and how does the department address contractors that have overextended themselves across numerous projects around the commonwealth, and not finish them on time.

“Accountability and transparency have been the self-proclaimed hallmarks of Gov. Wolf’s tenure over the commonwealth,” he said in the letter.

“Today, I call on PennDOT to address these concerns, and to ensure those within the district that their state departments still work for them, the people.”

Ron Young, PennDOT spokesman, commented on the letter this morning.

“There’s been some issues with this particular bridge,” Young said. “The expansion dams expand and contract with weather conditions; when they started to replace them, they realized that the original design didn’t jive with what they were seeing on the bridge, and they had to reorder them.”

Young said it isn’t “uncommon” when dealing with a bridge maintenance contract.

“When they get out there and they start looking at things, sometimes they find more than what was originally anticipated that they couldn’t see just by looking at the bridge,” he said. “This particular contract has 13 bridges, and the contractor has start date and completion date to do all the bridges.”

As a result, Young said the dates are “anticipated, estimated.”

“As long as they get the work done between the start and finish dates, they are in compliance with the original contract,” he said. “They have until August 2019 to finish all the bridges.”

Young said their staff is expecting a project schedule update from the contractor on Friday.

The project officially began in August 2016.