A bridge project was unveiled Friday in Carbon County. It will mean faster response time in case of a fire.
Everyone was all smiles at the ribbon cutting on a replacement bridge in Parryville.
Neighbor Linda Gombert watched from a distance. She's glad the new bridge will handle heavy truck traffic, something the old bridge could not.
"We were always afraid that it would break down because of the trucks that used to go over it. We thought one day it was going to go and collapse," Gombert said.
The first across the new span was a fire truck. That had special meaning. The old bridge was closed for seven months and during that time, the community's fire chief had some worries.
"The whole time they were doing this our response time was probably five to 10 minutes longer but now with the bridge being complete we'll be able to get out of town a little quicker," said Parryville Fire Chief Dan Keiser. If we needed a ladder truck to come into the borough they couldn't get across because it was too heavy."
Parryville has a number of historic buildings. Because of all the history PennDOT wanted the bridge to reflect it. That's why the bridge looks the way it does."
"We wanted to match the structure with the area so we had a linder with a stone facade and a stain to match the settings in the area," said Al Picca of PennDOT.
"Aesthetically it will look much nicer. I have five grandchildren that live in Parryville. They can look at this bridge 50 years from now and they notice how much more work went into it," said John Roeder of Parryville.
The Parryville bridge is an example of the state's on-going effort to replace 500 structurally deficient spans.
Everyone was all smiles at the ribbon cutting on a replacement bridge in Parryville.
Neighbor Linda Gombert watched from a distance. She's glad the new bridge will handle heavy truck traffic, something the old bridge could not.
"We were always afraid that it would break down because of the trucks that used to go over it. We thought one day it was going to go and collapse," Gombert said.
The first across the new span was a fire truck. That had special meaning. The old bridge was closed for seven months and during that time, the community's fire chief had some worries.
"The whole time they were doing this our response time was probably five to 10 minutes longer but now with the bridge being complete we'll be able to get out of town a little quicker," said Parryville Fire Chief Dan Keiser. If we needed a ladder truck to come into the borough they couldn't get across because it was too heavy."
Parryville has a number of historic buildings. Because of all the history PennDOT wanted the bridge to reflect it. That's why the bridge looks the way it does."
"We wanted to match the structure with the area so we had a linder with a stone facade and a stain to match the settings in the area," said Al Picca of PennDOT.
"Aesthetically it will look much nicer. I have five grandchildren that live in Parryville. They can look at this bridge 50 years from now and they notice how much more work went into it," said John Roeder of Parryville.
The Parryville bridge is an example of the state's on-going effort to replace 500 structurally deficient spans.
