Jim Thorpe residents will begin to see equipment being moved in for the 903 Bridge project in February.

According to a correspondence to the Carbon County Commissioners from Allan A. Myers of Worcester, the contractor for the $28 million project, work will begin on Feb. 10.Traffic will continue to travel on the existing bridge until the new bridge is complete. Traffic will then be rerouted onto the new bridge before the demolition of the current bridge takes place.Sean Brown, district press officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation District 5, said that the estimated project completion date is July 2017.The new bridge will be a "961-foot, four-span continuous steel plate girder bridge structure" that spans over the Lehigh River, Lehigh Canal and Reading, Blue Mountain and Northern and Norfolk Southern railroad lines.The proposed structure will be about 940 feet upstream from the existing bridge. It will run from approximately the intersection of Second Street on the east side of Jim Thorpe and connect to Route 209 at about the intersection of Liberty Road at the section known as the Liberties.The project also includes constructing retaining walls and reconstructing and widening Route 209.In a related manner, the commissioners met with representatives of Penn-DOT Thursday afternoon to discuss options for the ticket booth at the entrance of the county parking lot.The commissioners hoped that the booth would not need to be moved for the project, but after discussions, Commissioner William O'Gurek said, that it will need to be relocated for the duration of the project.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard, who organized the meeting, explained that the county would need to obtain a highway occupancy permit to complete the widening of the parking lot entrance to accommodate the construction equipment, and learned that would not be an option.The county is now in the process of building a platform to place the booth on that will be movable. The structure will then be lifted from its current platform and moved. It will be powered by a generator for the duration of the project."We hoped to find a solution to not have to move the ticket booth, but unfortunately it wouldn't work," Gerhard said, adding that the county will move the booth next week to accommodate Allan A. Myers when they start the project Feb. 10.In June 2013, the county agreed to allow PennDOT to lease the land under the bridge for $301,599, for the duration of the project.The money will be used to move the ticket booth, and after the project is completed, repair the lot, which will likely be damaged from heavy equipment rolling over it for three years.