After years of delays, the Watervale Road bridge over Winters Run is finally set to be replaced, which will temporarily inconvenience some drivers traveling on one of the back routes between Bel Air and Fallston.
Construction of the new bridge is expected to start in mid-May, Harford County spokesperson Cindy Mumby said, after the county's Board of Estimates agreed Tuesday to award a $2.9 million contract for the project to JJID Inc., of Bear, Del.
The project qualifies for federal funds under the Federal Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program. The county will consequently be reimbursed for 80 percent of the cost, about $2.3 million, according to the memorandum given to the Board of Estimates.
Harford County will pay 20 percent of the cost, amounting to roughly $573,782, according to the memorandum.
In 2012, Watervale Road was closed as the county made repairs to the traffic barriers at the bridge, which is a temporary bridge placed under the original span in 2009, after the decades-old original was deemed unsafe by inspectors and its deck was removed.
The existing bridge has a 15-ton weight limit and is only wide enough to permit one vehicle to cross at a time. There are stop signs at the western entrance on Watervale Road and at the T-intersection of Watervale and Tollgate roads on the east side of the bridge to keep vehicles traveling in opposite directions from trying to access the bridge at the same time.
The new bridge will be wide enough to permit vehicles traveling in the opposite direction to cross at the same time, Mumby confirmed.
The Watervale bridge project has endured its share of controversy.
In 2011, Board of Estimates members wondered why the county was bothering to replace the bridge at all because it was taking so long to design the new one, a process that began in 2007.
Similar concerns arose a year later, when county highways officials came back to the board asking for approval of more money for the design work.
There was no such controversy at Tuesday's board meeting, and the contract was approved without a hitch.
Over the years, the county also has stepped lightly in dealing with the surrounding community by involving residents in the planning and design process because of concerns about aesthetics and traffic management, including whether the new bridge should have two lanes.
A more heavily used back route between Bel Air and Fallston is Vale and Carrs Mill roads, the latter which crosses Winters Run on a two lane bridge.
The county, however, also has plans to replace a culvert along Carrs Mill over a Winters Run tributary named Bear Cabin Branch, a project that has had its own share of delays over acquisition of rights-of-way needed for the replacement.