An update by Bob Schaeffer of J.D. Eckman, superintendent of the McCall bridge construction project, brought some unwelcome news to Weissport residents who may want to sleep during working hours.

Schaeffer attended the Weissport Council meeting on Monday night to provide an update on the project, and to tell council that during the height of the construction there will be a need to park at least 40 to 50 construction workers cars while they work on the bridge.Schaeffer said that he was looking at lots to rent to park the vehicles to lessen the impact on borough workers."I plan to talk to the lady at the textile factory," he said. "I did try to speak with her in person and she wasn't receptive, but I did manage to talk to her on the phone and it went a lot better."He said he has an appointment to speak to her again.Schaeffer said that workers are waiting for the weather to break to engage in full construction phase."As soon as the weather breaks, it will be very busy," he said.Schaeffer said he also plans to find parking in Lehighton and have workers access the bridge through a stair tower, which will also help alleviate parking problems for residents."We are also looking to park some vehicles along the roadway, but we don't want to cause any problems with the police department," said Schaeffer."We also want to alleviate having our workers getting tickets and we do not want to create any animosity between the residents and our workers."Council President Gene Kershner said residents are aware that the bridge construction is going on and they know there will be increased traffic and parking issues."We went through this before and I believe our residents will work with you," said Kershner.Schaeffer then noted that a lot of the work will be done at night, but there will be times when the bridge will have flaggers and traffic will back up.Preparingfor the detour"We will be milling Bridge Street, Canal Street and Route 209 and repaving the area in anticipation of the detour," Schaeffer said. "This will be done at night."He added that there will be a membrane overlay on the Bridge Street bridge that takes traffic from Weissport to Route 209 near Dunkin' Donuts, and a light will be added at that intersection.The milling is scheduled to take place around April 15, he said.Bridge work noisy"When they did the milling on the bridge before, they used different equipment," said Schaffer. "They will be using newer equipment this time and it will make a lot of noise. We are not doing this at night as a respect to the residents."Schaeffer said that the milling machine will make two passes and will not take a long time, but that while it is taking place it will be loud.EMS meetingplannedHe also invited council to attend a meeting at 7:30 p.m. March 26 at the Lehighton Borough building to meet with the Emergency Management Agency to discuss the detour for the McCall Bridge, as well as traffic control. Fire police, EMS officers and borough police are invited to attend."This detour won't only impact the people of Weissport, it will impact anyone who normally drives through the area every day," said Brenda Leiby, council member.Rehabilitationof the bridgeRehabilitation of the bridge will continue throughout the spring and summer. It will involve a complex detour route.The $10-million to $11-million project involves rehabilitation of the structure, which carries Route 209 traffic across the Lehigh River, Lehigh Canal, Norfolk Southern Railroad and other local roads.The structural rehabilitation includes deck repairs, new latex modified concrete overlay on the existing deck, new integral approach slabs at each end of the bridge, replacement of all 17 deck joints, placing new protective fencing along both barriers, replacing existing drainage scuppers and new downspout systems.The superstructure repairs include cleaning and repainting the entire superstructure, stiffening gusset plates in the truss spans, adding floor beam cover plates and girder stiffeners to increase capacity.Substructure repairs include replacing/rehabilitating bearings, repairing deteriorated concrete on piers and abutments, and reconstructing pier 4, and placing additional protection at piers 2 and 3.Temporary traffic patterns in Weissport and surrounding the bridge are expected to last three to four months. During that time, Weissport traffic on Bridge Street will be one way for the entire two lanes.PennDOT will install temporary traffic lights at the intersection of Bankway and Bridge Street at the Lehighton end of the Weissport/Lehighton bridge to help with traffic flow.The McCall Bridge, built in 1938, was last rehabilitated in 1981.Workers are scheduled to work from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday with some occasional Friday shifts.During bridge jacking and placement of the latex modified concrete, workers will add night work hours from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.The detour is scheduled to reopen on Sept. 5, 2014.J.D. Eckman Inc. of Atglen is the contractor for the $11.8 million project.Completion date for the project is May 19, 2015.