The Walnut Street bridge in Slatington will be closed to all vehicular traffic beginning Monday, and will be closed until the bridge has been replaced.

Representatives from Lehigh County made the announcement Wednesday that the bridge would close in five days.

“The borough was totally taken by surprise,” said Daniel Stevens, the borough manager. “We were not notified. We were totally left in the dark.”

Stevens said the borough didn’t find out about the announcement until residents began calling the office for more information.

“We initially thought it couldn’t be correct,” he said.

Stevens said he called the county to find out what was going on, and was told that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation had inspected the bridge and found structural failures. They told the county, who owns the bridge, that the bridge needed to be closed now.

The bridge was already slated for replacement as part of the realignment project affecting Main Street and Walnut Street.

“That bridge is heavily used,” Stevens said.

Stevens explained that residents and people living in Washington Township use that bridge daily to access Walnutport and Route 248.

The Walnut Street bridge is located between Main Street and Church Street, and goes over Trout Creek and Factory Street in the Borough of Slatington.

In a news release from Lehigh County, the detour will use Main Street and Church Street, both are two-way streets. All traffic will be expected to use the detour route.

“The borough has had no time to prepare for this,” Stevens said.

The municipal building is on the Church Street side of the bridge, as well as the fire department.

Stevens said Church Street is a steep hill.

“It’s one of the steepest hills in the town,” he said.

Residents will most likely use other roads they know of in the borough to bypass the bridge, but these roads do not go to controlled intersections. This could be dangerous, he said.

In addition to the bridge closure, the easterly sidewalk across the bridge will be closed “for pedestrian safety,” but the westerly sidewalk will be available for pedestrian use.

The left-hand turn onto Walnut Street from Main Street also will not be available for use, because the bridge will be closed to vehicular traffic.

The bridge replacement and roadway realignment project will be managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The county said bids for the construction of the new bridge are tentatively scheduled to be opened on Dec. 12.

Once a bid is accepted, the bridge and roadway realignment project could take 2 to 3 years to complete at a cost of about $7.5 million.

Stevens said there are several utility lines running across the bridge and permits have not been obtained yet for their relocation. He doesn’t know if the closure will expedite the bridge replacement process or not.

“Three years may be wishful thinking,” he said.