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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Three years here, two years there and if all goes as planned a new bridge will be in place over the railroad tracks on North Washington Street in the city&#8217;s North End.</p><p>The estimated $2.5 million needed to build it is in place. The preliminary design received the go ahead from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation in February. And it&#8217;s leapfrogged ahead of other projects on the state&#8217;s list.</p><p>But the possible completion date of 2024 still puzzled residents who&#8217;ve had to detour around the bridge for nearly six years. What&#8217;s taking so long, they asked.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s an inconvenience,&#8221; said Joanne Koval of East Chestnut Street.</p><p>She and approximately 15 other residents attended one of two meetings Wednesday held by city officials and Dominic Yannuzzi, project engineer in Hazleton office of Alfred Benesch &amp; Co.</p><p>The meetings at City Hall and the Hollenback Fire Station, a few blocks from the bridge, provided a status report and sought input on the project to get it on the drawing board.</p><p>Getting it to this point took a concerted effort and the backing of state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Plymouth Township, and state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, said Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George.</p><p>&#8220;When I first took office in 2016, the North Washington Street Bridge was the prime complaint of people in the North End and Parsons areas of the city and I said I&#8217;d do what I can to put it on the list,&#8221; George said during the City Hall meeting.</p><p>It wasn&#8217;t on the 12-year list of PennDOT projects at the time, George explained. He and city Director of Operations Butch Frati, who sits on the Metropolitan Planning Organization that prioritizes projects in PennDOT&#8217;s District 4, lobbied to include it.</p><p>&#8220;A year later we got it on the four-year list. Now it&#8217;s funded for the engineer study. And that&#8217;s almost unheard of with the state government,&#8221; George said.</p><p>&#8220;The fact that it&#8217;s funded I believe it&#8217;s a sign of hope,&#8221; Koval said.</p><p>PennDOT will cover 80 percent of the cost and the city the other 20 percent or $500,000 from its Liquid Fuels account, under the funding arrangement.</p><p>&#8220;The process is slow. It takes a while. People don&#8217;t quite understand that,&#8221; said Frati.</p><p>The age of the bridge and the fact that it spans an active rail line complicates the process, Yannuzzi added. The Luzerne and Susquehanna Rail line owned by the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority needs improvements on vertical and horizontal clearances on that section of track under the bridge.</p><p>Yannuzzi said his firm is investigating whether the steel girder bridge, built in 1929, has historical value. If it does, then the new bridge has to be built &#8220;pretty close to the way it looks now,&#8221; Yannuzzi said at the City Hall meeting. If that&#8217;s not feasible, the replacement has to resemble the older bridge.</p><p>&#8220;If it&#8217;s not considered historic, then we would use normal construction methods or materials to build the bridge,&#8221; Yannuzzi said.</p><p>The historical review is underway and should be completed in three months. A geotechnical investigation will soon begin to determine how to build the foundation for the bridge. That should take between four and six months. All that figured into the 18-month time frame to complete the preliminary design. Another 18 for final design and construction could begin in late 2021, Yannuzzi added.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney urged Yannuzzi to keep Johnson Street near the bridge open during the construction.</p><p>&#8220;This is not merely a convenience issue for us. This is a public safety issue,&#8221; Delaney said. </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn Eastern Engineers, LLC, principal Andrew Pasonick, right, discusses the North Washington Street bridge project with neighborhood residents Joanne Koval, and Mary Jo and John Marconi during a public meeting at the Hollenback Fire Station in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL050919BRIDGE-JL_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn Eastern Engineers, LLC, principal Andrew Pasonick, right, discusses the North Washington Street bridge project with neighborhood residents Joanne Koval, and Mary Jo and John Marconi during a public meeting at the Hollenback Fire Station in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL050919BRIDGE-JL_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre resident Steve Hausknecht asks a question during a public meeting on the North Washington Street bridge project at the Hollenback Fire Station in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.	 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL050919BRIDGE-JL_3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre resident Steve Hausknecht asks a question during a public meeting on the North Washington Street bridge project at the Hollenback Fire Station in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday.	 </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL050919BRIDGE-JL_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">City of Wilkes-Barre Director of Operations Butch Frati, left, and Benesch Engineering project manager Dominic Yannuzzi answer residents&#8217; questions about the North Washington Street bridge project at the Hollenback Fire Station on Wednesday.	 </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/web1_TTL050919BRIDGE-JL_2.jpg</photo2><caption2>City of Wilkes-Barre Director of Operations Butch Frati, left, and Benesch Engineering project manager Dominic Yannuzzi answer residents&#8217; questions about the North Washington Street bridge project at the Hollenback Fire Station on Wednesday.	 </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

N. Washington St. bridge project in Wilkes-Barre funded, moving ahead