New Kensington-Arnold to seek proposals for replacement of Valley High pedestrian bridges
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The twin pedestrian bridges spanning Little Pucketa Creek in front of Valley High School in New Kensington might not be fully replaced until early in the 2024-25 school year, an engineer working on the project for the school district said.
The New Kensington-Arnold School Board could vote to seek proposals for the project at its April 4 meeting.
At a recent meeting of the school board’s buildings and grounds committee, Edward Patton, owner of Patton Engineering, said the district will save a significant amount of money by replacing the bridges with prefabricated structures and breaking the project into three parts.
While conventional construction could cost $1 million to $1.2 million, Patton said, the cost with prefabricated bridges would be between $580,000 and $600,000.
The bridges themselves are expected to cost $132,500 each, Patton said.
An issue with prefabricated structures is the long lead time, about eight months, for them to be built and delivered, Patton said.
To avoid markups of 20% to 100%, Patton recommends the district seek separate bids for demolition of the existing bridges and construction of new steps, a ramp and handicapped parking spaces.
He said the district could save between $50,000 and $200,000 that way.
The existing bridges are not wheelchair accessible, as there are steps where they meet the parking lot. Rather than installing two ramps, Patton said the district would be able to have one with a crossover between the bridges, which would add $30,000 to the cost.
The district also will need to mark at least two parking spaces for handicapped parking.
One of the two bridges is closed, and it would be torn down first this summer, Patton said.
The new bridges would be delivered separately, with the first being placed in spring 2024 and completed in six weeks.
Superintendent Chris Sefcheck said the existing open bridge would remain in place until the new bridge is complete. At that point, the second bridge would be demolished to prepare for its replacement.
While Sefcheck said the idea is to always have one bridge open while classes are in session, it’s possible that will not be the case.
“It’s all going to depend on materials and cost,” he said. “If it’s going to save the district thousands and thousands of dollars to do removal at one time, we have to consider that. There’s so many variables to consider in a project that’s small like this but complicated.”
The district completed renovation of the school’s main entrance bridge last fall. Repair work is slated for the bridge by the football stadium that is shared with the Northern Westmoreland Career and Technology Center.
While the school has those other bridges, Sefcheck said the twin pedestrian spans at the center are needed because they are part of evacuation routes. Because of that, he was not certain they could both be removed at the same time.
The decision would hinge on issues of student safety and the potential increase in liability if both bridges are torn down at the same time, Sefcheck said.
“It’s hard to tell what’s going to happen,” he said. “We keep our options open so we keep the safety, the fiscal responsibility and accessibility all at the front of decision-making.”
Regardless, Sefcheck agreed with Patton’s projection that the project would not be finished until early in the 2024-25 school year.