When I told you that Lehigh County Executive Don Cunningham would formally re-open the Linden Street bridge on Wednesday, I also mentioned that Scott Ott, Don's opponent for County Exec last year, would be on hand to display his bungee jumping skills. Scott, worried that "the rope Mr. Cunningham purchased for me was bought with money he saved on the Courthouse project," politely declined. But never fear, the Chairman of Lehigh County's Board of Comm'rs, Dean Browning, joined Cunningham. He did no bungee jumping, but this fiscal conservative commended Cunningham for pushing ahead with the Linden Street bridge.What's the big deal with one dinky little bridge, anyway?
It's what County governments do. They own many of the bridges we travel over every day. As we tool in to work each morning, juggling cell phones in one hand and swilling coffee with the other, most of us take them for granted. We're oblivious to the reality that thirty per cent of Pennsylvania's bridges are structurally deficient. Allentown alone has forty-seven bridges, and guess what? According to NationalBridges.com, 23 of them are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
At the rate Allentown is going, it might have to change its current motto from "City Without Limits" to "City Without Bridges."
Before Lehigh County began to rebuild the Linden Street bridge, it rated poorly. Nationalbridges.com notes that the scour, i.e erosion of stream bed or bank material from bridge foundations, was "critical" and e foundations had actually become unstable. Their conclusion: "basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action."
Cunningham took County dollars "trimmed from a bloated Lehigh County Courthouse expansion," and went to work on crumbling bridges. $6.5 million was sunk into the Linden Street bridge alone. Here's how he explains it.
"The use of county dollars helped fast-track the $6.5 million Linden Street Bridge project, allowing us to go from engineering to completion in just two short years and seven months. Engineering of this bridge began in June of 2007, and construction began in fall of ’08.
"Had we waded through the red tape of PennDOT, construction would not have started until 2012 – if we were lucky. In addition, it’s doubtful a project of this magnitude would have gotten off the ground in today’s economy. "
Lehigh County will replace four bridges and have major repairs completed or underway on 17 others by the end of this year. Another four are in design and engineering for imminent replacement.
"That’s more than half of the county’s 47 bridges,” Cunningham notes.
Dean Browning noted that they could have waited to participate in the Pennsylvania Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), under which 95% of the capital cost is covered by the state. County Commissioners voted 5-4 in 2008 to finance the replacement itself.
Browning, who voted to fund this bridge at the county level, gives this explanation.
"I can say that my vote was based two things. First, I ran for office saying the county needed to focus on its basic responsibilities and the maintenance and repair of our bridges certainly falls into that category. And, secondly, in 2007 the County Executive and the Board had committed to the Mayor and to the residents of Allentown that this bridge would be repaired in a timely fashion. The fact that we are standing here in 2010 instead of 2012 or 2107 with a competed bridge is proof that we keep our word."
"Don mentioned that if we had gone the TIP route it wouldn’t have been until 2012 before construction would have begun.
"I know Don likes to say he is really a conservative at heart, but in this case I think he was being overly optimistic and that a more realistic date if we had gone the TIP route was 2017.
"To me, this delay in fulfilling one of the County’s basis responsibilities for such an important part of the County’s infrastructure is not acceptable and Don should be commended for pushing ahead with the repair."
Some of you might call this crazy spending, and I'm sure the Lehigh Valley Tea Party would vote to let bridges collapse, if they ever conducted votes. After all, that is limited government. I could hear them now. "If God had meant us to cross rivers and streams, he'd part the waters."
I call it good government.
On my blog, Michael Molovinsky has snidely posted an "open note to donny cunningham; donny the 8th st. bridge in allentown needs work." This refers to the famous Alburtis Meyer Bridge over 8th Street, and according to NationalBridges, it's structurally deficient, too. What Molovinsky neglects to note is that it's owned by PennDot, not the County.
10 comments:
Oh yeah! Well in Northampton County we are going to do a study to see if a committee will be formed to review a possible policy on fixing bridges. So I guess we showed you.
Northampton County, where only the rocks move slower than our government.
Our slogan, "A County with constipation"
bernie, sorry about that snide remark, that attitude certainly has no place on this blog. the 8th st. bridge is an irreplaceable icon for allentown. perhaps allentown and lehigh county could chip in a keep the weeds and saplings pulled until the former general service director and governor hopeful uses his influence with penndot.
From Bernie's post (Don Cunningham quote):
"The use of county dollars helped fast-track the $6.5 million Linden Street Bridge project, allowing us to go from engineering to completion in just two short years and seven months. Engineering of this bridge began in June of 2007, and construction began in fall of ’08."
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Bernie -
This is not a slight on Cunningham, but it is a sad commentary on the state of government (at all levels) when a small bridge has been closed for over a year and a half and it is viewed as fast-tracking.
That so many have come to accept this level of service (or that some even view it as exemplary) is equally disheartening. It is also part of the reason why so many bridges are in the condition they are in.
Replacing the Linden Street bridge was not the building of the Hoover Dam. It was a small bridge - but still a vital link to Allentown's downtown.
The capability to actually build such projects faster is there, perhaps there is just too much "red tape" and unnecessary bureaucracy. We need to expect more and demand better from our elected officials.
Again, none of that is meant as a slight on any particular politician, just a comment on the way things are being done in general.
By the way, your continued mischaracterization of those who advocate limited government is disappointing. I realize that you seem to be on a mission to destroy the local Tea Party, and I guess that now includes anyone who believes in limited government.
Roads and bridges are a core function of state and local government. The founders of our country emphasized that the design of the Constitution was to distribute authority of governmental service to the level where the function could be best administered at the least expense.
It would be more accurate to note therefore, that limited government supporters would likely advocate that the county focus more on the core functions of county government (like roads and bridges) - not less.
" it is a sad commentary on the state of government (at all levels) when a small bridge has been closed for over a year and a half and it is viewed as fast-tracking."
Caesar crossed the Rhine in a day, so I understand that point, but the county finished it much more quickly than the state, which would not have started until somewhere between 2012 and 2017.
I am on on mission against the Tea party, just its unelected leaders and its blatant political activity.
"until the former general service director and governor hopeful uses his influence with penndot."
I have no reason to believe that Cunningham has any particular influence over PenDot, but now you want city and county government to maintain state infrastructure.
Bernie said
"Caesar crossed the Rhine in a day, so I understand that point, but the county finished it much more quickly than the state, which would not have started until somewhere between 2012 and 2017."
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Exactly!
Yet we still accept that level of service from the state. Then we think that rebuilding an existing bridge in 3 years (from engineering to completion) is an accomplishment.
We should expect government to excel and need to look at the results. It's not enough to be satisfied that we did it faster than the state.
If there was a natural disaster that took out all of our bridges, would we wait 5 to 10 years to replace them? Would we be happy with 3 years? Of course not, and I guarantee you that if such a disaster did occur, we would have at least a good portion of our bridges back mighty quickly.
Yet we still tolerate 3-10 years as the ordinary pace for government.
We tolerate so much from government in the form of design requirments, approvals, labor provisions, etc. that it strangles the ability of government (in terms of both time and money) to accomplish the very things that government was meant to do (like replacing a small bridge).
We should be outraged that the state wouldn't start a needed project until 2012-2017. So should our elected officials. I'm sure there are other projects in the county waiting...and waiting...and waiting for the state.
We should also be outraged that it still took 3 years to replace a deteriorating bridge. I'm sure much of that delay is due to requirements imposed by the state or federal government. So instead of patting themselves on the back, our elected officials should be investigating why this project still took so long and what "red tape" can be cut (at whatever level) to rebuild the next bridge much faster.
"We should expect government to excel and need to look at the results. It's not enough to be satisfied that we did it faster than the state."
That's a very valid criticism. You really do have an excellent point.
Dean Browning a "fiscal conservative"? Please.
How one campaigns does not define one as a "fiscal conservative". How one actually governs defines that term.
Dean does not qualify and the voters will probably agree when they get his - and other Commissioner - voting records.
Jane Ervin ran as a "fiscal conservative" and it didn't help her.
So did Don Cunningham this last election and the one thing Scott Ott did right was to challenge this assertion. Cunningham won by 800+ votes after crushing Ervin.
The people are waking up. They are beginning to understand it is how you GOVERN, not how you campaign that matters....
Joe,
What a pile of bullshit you're shoveling! You're denying that Browning is a conservative? Why is that? Because he believes in bipartisanship and suggested that the Vice chair be a Dem? You're real problem is that Browning, unlike you, is no extremist. Nor is he willing to do your bidding. Your status as unelected leader of the local tea party does not matter to him.
I was at the comm'r meetings when Browning proposed eliminating (first) time and cutting (second time) all the qualitry of life grants. It was an attempt to curb discretionary spending. I watched as he was called every name in the book. Where the hell were you? In fact, I don't recall seeing you at a comm'rs meeting.
The trutrh is that there is very little room to cut spending on a couty level. I have asked you before to identify thse areas where cuts an be made, and you never answered that questio. Should Cunningham open the doors to the jail and let everyone out? That would save money.
By the way, in Cunningham's most recent state of the county address, he asked YOU for YOUR HELP in identifying specific areas where he could make cuts. Have you sent any ideas to him? Has anyone?
It's very easy to walk arounfd and complain about cutting spending, but I never hear any specific ideas from people like you when I ask for them. Never.
The truth is that you have no real answers. You just like to prance around with power points and resolutions.
In your tea party, you've been "auditing" the budgets of both counties for nearly a year and have come up with nada. Zilch. In fact, even the way you went about it demonstrates your igorance. You filed a right to know request, so you claim, for information that is already available online, and in greater detail.
The real reason for your ire at Hlliard is that he suggested your limited gov't resolution is unworkable, and it is.
I think it was wise for the County to take a proactive approach to the Linden Street Bridge.
It should be noted that the Linden Street Bridge is approximately 500 feet from the Hamilton Street Bridge but I trust many feel it is a vital route into the City even if it is only two blocks away.
Now if we look to the north into Whitehall, we have the 5th Street Bridge. On average, it carries 8000 vehicles a day which swells during the holiday season as an alternative to MacArthur Road and a feeder to the LV Mall. The commonwealth wants to replace it with a pedestrian bridge as part of the Downsized Route 22 project to save $2M.. They argue it is only 600 feet away. They fail to recognize the adverse impact it will have diverting a few more thousand vehicles a day on the already congested MacArthur Road and Fullerton Ave. They also fail to recognize that 5th Street diverges and services two parts of the City. They fail to recognize it is a vital alternative to EMS servicing Whitehall and Allentown.
However, with the snap of a finger, they diverted an additional $6M to the 2nd St and Route 378 Interchange project. If we follow the Commonwealth logic, will they now propose to eliminate the four lane Fahy Bridge because it only carries 8000 vehicles per day and is only a stones throw from the Hill to Hill bridge?
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