The original Route 903 bridge connecting west and east Jim Thorpe, part of many locals’ daily commute for 63 years, will be gone in three months.

Crews from J.B. Fay Construction worked diligently this week, removing railings and preparing to lift off sections of the structure’s deck as part of a $1 million demolition.“There are tiebacks in the foundation and anchors in the abutments,” said Calvin Ulshafer, project manager for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. “Following the deck section, crews will remove the bridge’s superstructure and lastly jackhammer out its piers. Twelve weeks from today, we’ll be out of here.”The bridge has been closed to traffic since a new crossing opened up almost 1,000 feet upstream on July 1.Ulshafer said the 613-foot bridge is the largest such structure for which he has overseen demolition during his time with the state.“It’s really different in how it was made,” Ulshafer said. “It’s an old plate girder design from the post-World War II era. Structural steel was expensive after the war. It was at a premium and that’s why there isn’t much of it on this bridge.”Having scored a 28 out of 100, the bridge is classified as structurally deficient.Several residents, led by Summit Hill’s Todd Konstas and Nesquehoning’s Charles Bott, attended multiple Jim Thorpe Borough Council meetings, asking the governing body to support PennDOT saving the bridge and selling it to Andy Muller, president of the Reading and Northern Railroad.To Ulshafer and the seven J.B. Fay workers on site, there is no question it was ready to come down.“It outlived its life,” Ulshafer said. “It was a 50-year bridge when it was built in the 1950s and here we are in 2016.”Even if PennDOT were to have saved the bridge, he added, the state would have had to hand it over to a public entity such as the county or borough, not a private individual.“We haven’t had any problem with any protests or anything like that,” Ulshafer said.Crews are taking all safety precautions during demolition.When the bridge’s railings come off, temporary safety railings are put in place. Workers underneath the bridge monitor who passes under it and when.“When we lift the concrete off, nobody can be under there,’ Ulshafer said. “No trains will be running when that happens. We’ll adjust our schedule. It won’t be like we’re delaying the trains.”The structural steel will be recycled, but the material won’t bring in near as much as was first anticipated.Ulshafer figures the recycling efforts will bring in about $60,000, but at one point the estimate was $160,000.“The price of steel has gone down significantly,” he said.The bridge demolition isn’t the only checklist item left for PennDOT.Crews will pour sidewalk Thursday to fully connect the new bridge to downtown Jim Thorpe, finish paving Route 209 down to Subway and finish paving River Street.“That was a state street that we’re now turning over to the borough and they’re getting a brand-new street,” Ulshafer said.Carbon County stands to benefit when crews pack up and head out of town. Below what was the bridge, it will gain an additional 500 feet of parking lot space.