
The Lackawanna Avenue Bridge is a three-span, 78m structure over the D&H Railroad and the Lackawanna River. The middle span of the structure is a reinforced concrete open spandrel arch. The bridge is located in the center of the City and was one of the main access roads into the City, Steamtown Mall, and the Steamtown National Historic Site.
Buchart Horn provided preliminary engineering, environmental studies and documentation, final design, and services during construction. Buchart Horn performed an initial inspection of the bridge and discovered severe deterioration of the superstructure. In fact, outriggers for the inspection crane being used by Buchart Horn inspectors punched through the concrete bridge deck, resulting in the closure of both outside lanes on the bridge. The subsequent design and construction of the new $6,000,000 bridge took almost 10 years due to complex environmental permitting and the historic nature of the existing bridge.
The project included bridge rehabilitation, substructure repair, complete superstructure replacement with replication of the existing barriers and pylons, and approach work. Traffic (up to 11,000 cars per day) had been detoured during construction of the bridge. Environmental documentation for the project consisted of a Level 3 Categorical Exclusion Evaluation, with cultural resources handled by Stipulation D of the Programmatic Agreement for Minor Transportation Projects.