BRIDGE PROJECT IN LIMBO

A public meeting will be scheduled soon to get feedback over the stalled bridge replacement in Driftwood. Time and site will be announced.

Work came to a halt in March after Clearwater Construction Inc. employees discovered an unidentified noxious chemical that sent them to an area hospital as a precaution.

PennDOT spokesperson Marla Fannin said a work plan is being assembled as the department determines the next step in the $3.4 million project. In the meantime, motorists can continue using the old bridge over the Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek.

PennDOT called in the Pa. Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to assess the site after workers unearthed noxious fumes from a section along Route 555. Neumeyer Environmental Services, a Pittsburgh-based remediation firm, has collected soil samples for analysis. Results are expected next week.

The new bridge, replacing a substandard steel structure that is almost 70 years old, will allow more commercial and recreational traffic in and out of the Cameron County from its southwestern side.

It will be a 278-foot, threespan concrete bridge that will accommodate two-way traffic and heavier vehicles. It will also eliminate a 90- degree turn on the Driftwood side of the river.

This bridge will be a welcome development to commercial haulers, including those servicing the Pennsylvania Pellet & Millwork plant in Driftwood. Last year, that company was awarded a $137,000 state grant to extend a railroad siding leading to a loading dock.

Last fall, structural defi- ciencies forced PennDOT to impose a 13-ton weight limit on the old bridge. Combination loads such as tractor trailers, may be as heavy as 23 tons. Former employees of Metal Wire Recovery, a factory that occupied the site through the 1960s, told Endeavor News that materials used by that business, including acids to strip wires, were buried in the ground.

Thousands of tons of soil was hauled from the area in a clean-up effort that began in 2002, but that remediation took place mostly in what is now the parking lot of the Driftwood Store and Pennsylvania Pellets and Millwork.

It's possible that an electrical conductor manufacturer that occupied the property before the arrival of Metal Wire Recovery is responsible for the contaminated soil.