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wantabeana t1_j16m4tk wrote

Now that we all see how quickly things can be rebuilt, penndot has no excuse for not finishing 28

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just_an_ordinary_guy t1_j16spfq wrote

Eh, yes and no. This was built in an emergency because it's a critical link and was entirely unusable. Infrastructure is basically a "pick two" of fast/quality/cost. This bridge was way more expensive than it would've been if it was planned for.

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ididacannonball t1_j17pvrt wrote

Yup and the PennDOT official in the article said as much too. This is not the new normal for PennDOT, it was an emergency.

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stadulevich t1_j16qmak wrote

Highland Park bridge exit just opened up I believe

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duranfan t1_j18gajf wrote

For the moment, yes. Apparently it will close again in a few months so that it can be completely finished. The 28 N side, though, is still all kinds of screwed up, and will be until at least August of 2023.

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enemy_of_your_enema OP t1_j19o9of wrote

From the, ahem, article:

“The time savings was a lot on the front end,” she said, when the agency
and the contractor designed a bridge with “the material that was
available.” She added that Fern Hollow has “a higher factor of safety,”
than it strictly needs; in order to keep the process moving as quickly
as possible, they designed and built with “some conservative engineering
guesses … so we wouldn't have to go back.”

The speed of Fern Hollow’s restoration can not — and will not — become
PennDOT’s new normal, Moon-Sirianni stressed. It was an emergency.

“There’s a lot of folks that work very, very quickly when something is
an emergency,” she said, reeling off as examples PennDOT’s central
office, PennDOT’s bridge specialist and the Federal Highway
Administration. “You can only have so many emergencies.”

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