According to Richard J. Allan, Secretary for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), Pennsylvania, construction of the new Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail Bridge on the Pennsylvania Turnpike close to Somerset, is expected to commence by 31st May this year.
One tree grows from the rotting stump of another at Laurel Ridge State Park
Mosites Construction, a Pittsburgh-based company, was granted the contract valued around $1.3 million in March. The construction work over the 184-feet long and 10-feet wide bridge is expected to get completed in the early part of December.
The old span of the bridge that was built in 1970 was closed in the last part of 2009 and broken-apart few months later when the condition of the bridge was found to harm snowmobile riders and hikers frequenting the bridge as well as toll road travelers below it. The substitute construction to be built at the location will connect a number of Laurel Highlands located trail systems again.
The bridge possessed by the Bureau of State Parks, will reconnect the Highlands Hiking Trail, a recreational location, which draws around 80,000 to 100,000 hikers and others every year and Forbes State Forest.
Source: http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/