CARBONDALE - With the collapse of the city's upper Williams Avenue bridge, a handful of neighborhood residents expressed concern about the condition of the street's other main point of access.
The approximately 20-foot bridge, which spans Racket Brook to connect a small group of homes to Brook Street, had already been closed for more than a year when part of the bridge fell off an abutment.
The deteriorating lower Williams Avenue bridge, another one-lane span connecting to Spring and Brook streets, has been the main point of access to the area. That bridge now has a 3-ton weight limit.
"There is no way we're going to entertain" fixing the collapsed bridge, Mayor Justin Taylor said.
Mr. Taylor said it is more logical to continue to use the lower Williams Avenue Bridge until that structure can be replaced, but engineers estimate replacing it will cost $550,000.
"We don't have a dime budgeted for it," the mayor said.
Mr. Taylor said state Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, already placed the city's proposed $1.7 million creek stabilization project in the state capital budget. If the state OKs the request and releases funding, Mr. Taylor hopes to "rope in" the lower Williams Avenue bridge replacement.
He warned even if the money soon becomes available, it will be several months before work could start, and many approved projects are not approved for funding quickly.
The steep, partially paved Dixon Avenue also connects Williams Avenue to Gravity Avenue and then Canaan Street, although neighborhood resident Ron Ross said that road is not intended to accommodate much traffic.
"I wouldn't want my life depending on an ambulance coming down that road in the wintertime," Mr. Ross said.
Mr. Taylor planned to fence off the collapsed bridge and have it removed.
Contact the writer: kwind@timesshamrock.com, @kwindTT on Twitter