Pottsgrove Faces Pricey Middle School Bridge Repair

Corrosion was evident beneath the Pottsgrove Middle School pedestrian bridge even before further investigation found the problems are much worse than initially feared.

Remember when the repairs to the Pottsgrove Middle School pedestrian bridge were supposed to cost $35,000?

Yeah forget that.

Try as much as $350,000 instead.

Tuesday night, Pottsgrove School Board Robert Lindgren said "the damage was much more extensive than we first thought."

Last month, Pottsgrove Facilities Director Jeffrey Cardwell told the board that the bridge failed an inspection in January and at least two blocks of concrete need to be removed in order to replace the steel waffling underneath.

He said the investigation by a contractor found that three drains in the bridge had allowed water to penetrate and rust the bridge’s steel decking.
The concrete and decking need to be removed and replaced, and the drainage system re-designed to prevent the problem from occurring again, he said.

Engineers also examined steel support girders for signs of rust and once a soffit was removed, the damage was revealed to be much more extensive, said Lindgren.

That said, Cardwell said he believes the $350,000 cost estimate to be a "worse case scenario," and he hopes to lower the cost to between $150,000 to $200,000.

One way that can be done, he said, is to change the work times. The estimate was based on starting work after school let out. But starting in the morning and moving students who would be disturbed by the noise would allow the project to be done more quickly and more cheaply.

Business Manager Dave Nester said the project, when combined with the $2.4 million roof replacement at the building and some changes to the HVAC system put a pretty big bite into Pottsgrove's capital budget reserve.

The capital reserve budget has been reduced by about $5 million, reducing by about a third from $15 million, he said.

Another item of note to taxpayers is the sudden jump in the district's special education budget.

Since July 1, the first day of the fiscal year, Pottsgrove has seen 45 new special education students, at lease seven of whom require enough special assistance that seven new one-on-one aides need to be hired to meet their IEP's, or individual education programs as set out in special education laws.

"We're going to have to hire some people we had not planned on hiring," said Superintendent William Shirk.

Kathryn Pacitto, director of pupil services, said the number is not unusual as much as the severity of the issues which need to be addressed among this particular group of special education students.

Although no cost to the special education budget was made available to the public Tuesday night, Nester said it is over the special education budget, but can be absorbed by the budget's fund balance, an example of why such funds are built into every year's budget, he added.

But a taste of special education costs came a few moments later in the meeting when the board unanimously approved a contract for a two students at Cottage Seven that will cost $140,140 per year.

And with that, here are the Tweets from the meeting:

Pricey Bridge Repair and Special Education Su