The New Kensington Bridge is expected to reopen as scheduled on Sept. 4, a PennDOT spokesman said Friday.
A six-week closure of the bridge over the Allegheny River between East Deer and New Kensington started July 24, diverting more than 15,000 vehicles that use it every day. The posted detour route has been using the Tarentum Bridge.
Work on the bridge had been proceeding on schedule as of Friday, PennDOT spokesman Steve Cowan said. He did not provide a time for when the bridge will reopen Sept. 4, which is Labor Day.
The 10th Street underpass on the New Kensington end of the bridge will open at the same time, Cowan said.
The northbound lane of Freeport Road in East Deer, which passes underneath the bridge, closed July 17 and will not reopen until late September, Cowan said.
While the bridge has been closed, crews have been conducting dam and bearing replacement, latex overlay, paving operations and other work.
“They are working on a latex overlay on the bridge currently,” Cowan said Friday.
The work is part of a $24.59 million preservation project that began in March and is scheduled to be finished next fall. Other work to be done includes structural steel and concrete substructure repairs, new lighting and a full painting.
“Painting operations will continue into next year,” Cowan said. “Steel repairs will continue in coordination with sand blasting and priming work until the weather no longer cooperates.”
Built in 1927, the New Kensington Bridge, also known as the Ninth Street Bridge, was named in 1984 for former state Rep. C.L. Schmitt.
