In the nick of time, Tinicum supervisors received and submitted a time-sensitive federal grant proposal for a temporary Headquarters Road Bridge fix.
The decaying bridge has been closed for more than a decade.
Due to the tight March 15 grant deadline, the board held a continuance meeting on March 9 to allow adequate time to read and consider the proposal.
Township Solicitor Steve Harris found the suggested grant application in need of numerous wording alterations and, that the 2016 budget number was now inadequate.
“If the township is asking for this grant, we’re going to need a better figure than the $2,704,506 stated here,” Harris said. “Even with inflation, this is a very stale number.”
Board vice-chairman James Helms voiced his concern about having enough funding to cover a worst-case scenario development.
“If we run into an issue, we don’t want to end up leaving the bridge in even worse condition,” Helms said. “Chances are if we do encounter a problem, it will be a high-dollar situation.”
Harris agreed that possibility is a significant concern and must be considered in the grant proposal. “PennDOT could say, ‘As Tinicum is taking the risk, should there be any damage when digging around the footings, that’s on the township’.”
Steve Baluh, of Wynn Associates, Tinicum’s township engineer and flood plain administrator, said they would monitor the excavation work quite closely, which would greatly mitigate the risks.
“However, we need to be very clear on the contractual liability between all parties before we’d go in,” Baluh added.
Considering the tightness of the application deadline, board member Eleanor Breslin asked Baluh if he had revised budget numbers to incorporate in the proposal. He stated he’d been working on itemizing application numbers with structural engineer Doug Bond, but they would not be ready to provide such specifics by March 15.
“We’re intentionally designing this bridge to be a project that starts low and grows via contingency funding,” Baluh said.
The board agreed that the best way forward was to put something together to meet the deadline, making sure it is structured in such a way that “it makes sense, we know what we’re getting and making sure we are fully covered.”
Breslin suggested the board members reach out to elected state officials, asking them to send letters in support of this application. All agreed.
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