The Hokendauqua-North Catasauqua Bridge, known to PennDOT as the Lehigh Bridge 3 Project, was originally scheduled for completion this fall. Rick Molchany, director of general services for Lehigh County, and county Engineer Steve Turosy attended the Oct. 14 meeting of the North Catasauqua Borough Council to update the borough on the progress of the bridge construction and to answer questions from council members.

Molchany explained three "setbacks" have caused a postponement of the original completion date. Currently, the bridge is expected to open to traffic in May 2015.

The first setback was caused by utility companies, Molchany said. A total of 63 days transpired while PPL and UGI planned and completed relocation of electrical and gas lines.

A second setback occurred when, during the installation of piles for the piers and abutments for the bridge, the construction crew hit bedrock. Construction of the first set of piles took the entire allotment of budgeted money and time originally planned for installation of all of the piles. This caused about a 100-day setback.

The third issue causing more time to be added to the project was the discovery of the unexpected presence of asbestos, which led to the need for asbestos abatement procedures while removing the old bridge.

The total completion of the bridge is now not expected until late summer 2015, but it may be open to traffic in May, Molchany said.

He said there are regular meetings between the county, the construction manager, general contractor, bridge inspectors, Penn- DOT and Whitehall Township officials and invited a representative of North Catasauqua to attend them as well.

A more significant amount of work is impacting the Whitehall Township side of the river due to realignment of the bridge in the area of Water and Lehigh streets.

The planned replacement of the Coplay-Northampton Bridge will begin after the contract is approved by the county in the fall of 2015.

"They're going to use the foundations of the existing piers," Turosy said. "There's going to be one new pier constructed, but for the most part, construction will move a little bit more quickly because we are using some of the substructure of the existing bridge and we won't be excavating quite as extensively as we did on this bridge and interfering with the river."

Construction costs for that bridge are expected to total $16-17 million.

Following that will be construction of a new Cementon-Northampton Bridge, Molchany said. With an estimated 20,000 vehicles a day crossing over, it's a "significant job." PennDOT will be handling reconstruction of that bridge on its own, without cooperation from Lehigh County.

The significance of Route 329, the road that crosses the river on the Cementon-Northampton Bridge, will affect plans for the new bridge.

"Homeland Security uses Route 329 to be an acceptable access point, east and west, in case something would happen on [Routes] 78 or 22," he said. "It's a required roadway that must be maintained and kept open, which means that project will probably need a new bridge ajaent to the existing bridge, which will keep traffic flowing [during construction]."

Plans for that bridge have not been completed. Engineers are still looking at ways to rehab the existing bridge but Molchany said he did not think it would be possible to repair the bridge while keeping Route 329 open at all times.

In addition, the bridge is historic, requiring a bit more diligence. Apparently, he said, there are only three bridges built in that style in eastern Pennsylvania.

A 2019 start and 2021 completion are estimated for that project.

"This corridor [containing the three bridges], was in dire need of work," he said. "We had a significant deficiency. Not closure, but really close."