New Castle – The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) announced yesterday that construction on the SR 141 Basin Road bridge will not be completed as planned before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Since construction began in October, the project has encountered a number of issues that will extend the closure of the bridge. During the initial demolition work, asbestos conduit pipe was discovered by the contractor inside both the north and southbound sidewalks that had not been identified in the project plans for appropriate removal and disposal. As a result, the contractor needed to pause demolition so all of the pipe, about 1200 feet total, could be safely removed before continuing demolition. Additionally, technical issues with the project schematics have also impacted the work schedule.
DelDOT is working with its contractor, Mumford & Miller Concrete, Inc., and its design consultant, McCormick Taylor, Inc. to address these issues and keep progressing on the project.
“While every project can present unexpected issues, we know this is an important roadway and not meeting our completion goal is extremely frustrating to DelDOT and more importantly to the community. At this time, we hope to reopen the roadway to traffic by year’s end and are working hard with all parties involved to meet that goal,” said Secretary of Transportation Jennifer Cohan.
The closure of the bridge went into effect on Tuesday, October 10, 2017. The more than $15.5 million rehabilitation project of the 62-year-old structure has been necessary as the bridge had required repeated deck patching efforts over the last several years, each of which resulted in road closures while the holes were patched. Raising the vertical clearance is also necessary to significantly reduce truck hits on the bridge structure.
Source: DelDOT