Drivers woke up early in the morning July 20 in Pottsville as Northeast Precast had 121-foot beams loaded onto special trailers for their trip to Northampton.

The scheduled arrival was 10:30 a.m., but the crew got delayed in Hamburg while state police checked the drivers’ credentials.

Ryan - “It’s just Ryan,” he said when he parked the beam in front of the crane - took the first truck. The course was down Route 61, across the 78 Interstate to Airport Road.

The tricky turns began at the corner of Airport Road and Route 329. Ryan made the turn with about a foot to spare, as cars backed up along the busy intersection.

The bridge is out at the Kopper Penny intersection in Allen Township. A temporary road was built to take the beam across the grass to Short Lane and up Atlas Road.

Another temporary road was in place to cut the corner at Atlas and Savage roads to get back on Route 329.

The specially designed tractor-trailer has specialty carriages in place before and after the beams. The carriages are controlled remotely from inside the cab. On tight turns, an assistant walks behind the trailer with a remote to give the driver spot locations.

Traffic backed up in Northampton as the caravan arrived, with maybe a hundred cars on the busy section of the road.

The only acceptable route was to back down Canal Street to the construction site. All the other approaches were nixed for various reasons.

The trickiest turn came at the end of Canal Street at the bridge over Hokendauqua Creek. The beams had to be backed over the bridge and into the construction area. Twelve K-turns later, Ryan had the beam under Big George, the crane ready to lift the beam into place.

Ten beams will get delivered over the next few days. They will be stored in the Hungarian Hall’s parking lot, 1300 Stewart St., until the crane is ready.

At the end of July, beams for the Coplay side of the bridge will come in. Coplay Police Chief Vincent Genovese said the route through Coplay is a little easier.

“We can bring the beams up Route 145 and into Coplay. We have a special road where the drivers will drop them below the new piers,” he said.

Genovese said traffic delays might happen on Route 145 during the delivery.