A $3.9 million pedestrian bridge spanning the Lehigh River is on schedule in Jim Thorpe as parts begin to arrive at the construction site.

The 250-foot steel truss bridge will complete one of the last remaining gaps along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor trail in Carbon County, officials said.While parts were being fabricated by Contech Inc. of Alabama, Latona Trucking and its subcontractors prepped the site where the bridge will be installed."The bridge will sit on two abutments, one on either side of the river," said Danielle Wolfrum of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. "Construction of the western abutment has gone smoothly and just last week the concrete was poured. Now the concrete must cure to the required hardness. Meanwhile, excavation of the eastern abutment revealed the remnants of the old dam, Dam 1, that had been part of the Lehigh Canal. These remnants had to be removed in order to drill the footings for the eastern abutment, which caused a bit of a delay, but drilling has gone smoothly and is nearly complete."The idea for a pedestrian bridge was originally outlined in the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor's 1992 Management Action Plan. The following year, an application was filed to design and construct the Mansion House Pedestrian Bridge. Ten years later, Pennsylvania Department of Transportationand Department of Conservation and Natural Resources funds were awarded to begin designing the bridge.The cost of the Latona Trucking contract is $2,729,483.20. In addition to more than $600,000 awarded by the DCNR to design, engineer and permit the bridge, and $3.3 million granted through PennDOT's Transportation Enhancement, hundreds of riders contributed through three "Bike for the Bridge" events.With parts now on site, the bridge will be assembled into six pieces, while crews continue to finish the abutments."This means forming and pouring the eastern abutment, installing the bearing pads that the bridge will sit on, as well as backfilling and constructing the approaches, fencing, and gates," Wolfrum said. "Currently the project is on schedule, despite the discovery of the dam remnants and more rain than anyone anticipated. But, the remaining work is complex. We hope that everything continues to go smoothly and the project can finish by mid-November."