Construction on the new Hokendauqua-North Catasauqua Bridge has accelerated over the past couple of months as workers scramble to finish the project.

Lehigh County Director of General Services Rick Molchany said June 5 that a meeting will be held June 16 at the PennDOT offices in Allentown, at which HRI Construction, the company building the bridge, will meet with county and PennDOT officials.

The meeting is expected to resolve whether HRI will be penalized financially for not meeting the contracted deadline of June 2015, as well as get a firm handle on when construction will be completed and the bridge will open to traffic.

Initially, the new bridge was to be ready for vehicle traffic November 2014, with later reports indicating June 2015. A revised date of December 2015 has since been provided.

Molchany debunked consistent rumors the bridge is ready to be opened this month. While not discounting the December opening, Molchany is hopeful it could be sooner than that. He said some of the work remaining could be performed while the bridge is open to traffic.

The new bridge features a gentle curve from Hokendauqua to the center of the new bridge.

PennDOT and the federal government are involved since the bulk of the funding for the bridge is derived from their coffers. The bridge is a Lehigh and Northampton counties-owned span.