At Catasauqua Borough Council’s regular meeting March 4, Ronald Gawlik, borough engineer, reported that construction of the new Race Street bridge over Catasauqua Creek will begin March 8.

The first go-round on the bridge in 2017 was canceled. The construction in 2018 was started and stopped because the bridge was deemed to be unstable with only half of its support system in place. Construction was halted until a new plan was developed to close Race Street completely and replace the bridge as quickly as possible. Businesses on Race Street agreed with the complete shutdown scenario.

Despite the previous planning, the bridge construction will take place in stages. The bridge will be closed eastbound during the start of the construction period. At some point, the traffic direction will be changed.

Because Race Street is a state road, the detour must be on state roads. Municipalities may charge the state for using local roads as part of the detour. A sign near Front Street will say road closed ahead - you can still get to DnD Market and Deli but not much farther. There is an official detour posted on the borough website, catasauqua.org.

Fire Chief Richard Hertzog noted that 300 triaxle trucks a day are using Race Street to transport gravel for Amazon’s airport warehouse. B. Braun has a big expansion going on as well. Councilman Brian Bartholomew suggested alerting the quarry to the road closures.