Plans to build the Tunkhannock Bypass in northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wyoming County took almost 36 years to reach fruition but by next fall the long road to its construction will finally come to an end with the opening of its last section.
The bypass has certainly been needed for some time, given the amount of traffic on U.S. Route 6 between the intersection of PA Route 29 and the intersection with PA Route 92 in downtown Tunkhannock, whose narrow streets have become increasingly congested. The average daily traffic is 18,784 vehicles, according to Dave Krisanda, community relations coordinator for Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s (PennDOT) District 4. He added that 8 percent of it is truck traffic.
Some of this congestion is already being eased by the $14.7-million eastern section of the bypass. Opened late last year, it runs from U.S. Route 6 east of Tunkhannock to intersect with PA Route 92 and then carries on to PA Route 29. Work continues on the western section of the bypass. Running from PA Route 29 to U.S. Route 6 at Mile Hill, west of Tunkhannock the $11.8-million project has an expected completion date of fall 2001.
A major part of the project involved the construction of three bridges over Tunkhannock Creek. “Two carried the bypass itself and a third replaced an old steel structure on PA Route 92 between the bypass nd the current U.S. Route 6,” said Krisanda. A fourth bridge will be constructed on the western section to carry the bypass over the current U.S. Route 6 a Mill Hill, he said, adding that funding for all four bridges, as well as the bypass project itself, cam entirely from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
General contractor Fahs-Rolston Paving Corporation, headquartered in Binghamton, NY, engaged Schuylkill Products Inc. (SPI) of Cressona, PA, to manufacture the massive beams needed for the four bypass bridges.
SPI’s Mark Pishock noted that “for Structure S-22715 we used 96-in. deep I-beams ranging from 102 to 134 ft.” Precast mid-span diaphragms were used to save time, he added.
For Structure S-22542 the company used 72-in. (182 cm) deep I-beams ranging from 89 to 123 ft. (27 to 37 m), while Structure S-22543 used 54-in. (137 cm) deep I-beams ranging from 24 to 80 ft. (7 to 24 m).
Structure S-22715 is a five-span continuous composite prestressed concrete I-beam bridge 620 ft. (189 m) long. Its cost was approximately $2.7 million. Structure S-22542 is a four-span continuous prestressed concrete I-beam bridge 456 ft. (139 m) long costing approximately $2 million, while Structure S-22543 is a three-span continuous prestressed concrete spread box beam bridge 256 ft. (78 m) long with a price tag of approximately $1.5 million.
One or two minor delays were experienced during bridge construction. Traffic had to be halted on Route 6 while beams were placed in position, and so this part of the work was carried out from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on a single night to minimize traffic delays and tie ups. In addition, high water slightly delayed construction of the bridge carrying Route 92 across Tunkhannock Creek but it was finally opened to traffic in October 2000.
While the bypass bridge beams are massive, they are not the largest SPI has manufactured, said Pishock. “We made beams that were 165 ft. long for the new 309 bypass over SR-81 in the Hazelton area,” he noted, adding that that particular project’s beams [a total of 20 96-in. (243 cm) high prestressed, precast concrete made for the exit bridge] also were the longest ever produced for PennDOT. They were made that large so they could take both south and north lanes of traffic and their record length helped overcome problems raised by the limited space available for the construction of piers and abutments.
SPI also worked on the Tunkhannock bypass project as a subcontractor for Wyoming Sand & Stone Company of Tunkhannock, PA, for whom they supplied beams and a precast exposed aggregate finish sound barrier. SPI also is providing the beams for a fourth bridge, Structure S-22731, to be erected on the western section of the bypass. A single span composite prestressed concrete I-beam bridge, it will be 142 ft. (43 m) long and will cost almost $1 million.
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