Nov 20, 2013 2 min read

A brief discussion of the South Central Avenue bridge replacement came up Wednesday at the Washington County commissioners’ agenda meeting, but a PennDOT spokeswoman said a contract for the project won’t be awarded until late next year.

Lisa Cessna, director of Washington County Planning Commission, mentioned the project because PennDOT needs access to bridge abutments in Chartiers Creek.

“This is one of our flood-control projects,” Cessna said of the easement the county plans to grant PennDOT. “We have an easement to do our own maintenance.”

Valerie Petersen, spokeswoman for PennDOT District 12 in Uniontown, said in a phone conversation, “It looks like it is going to be a complete replacement. Tentatively, it will be in late 2014.”

Meanwhile, areas for which Washington County has responsibility for flood control have been in the news recently because the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has told the county it must remove sandbars from Chartiers Creek in Washington and Burgett’s Fork in Burgettstown.

County officials feared taxpayers would have to foot the bill for expensive dredging, but the corps has said the task is “shoaling,” which is not as extensive.

Cessna said she has sent a letter to the corps in Pittsburgh requesting a meeting to discuss the matter, but that she has not received a reply.