Work will resume on the State Route 179 bridge over Oak Creek within a couple of weeks, despite rumors of major problems.

According to Arizona Department of Transportation Project Manager Carl Burkhalter, the sky is not falling.

The rumors of faulty designs or running out of money are entirely false, he said.

Instead, the impasse, which began in mid-July, was due to an underground abutment built with the existing bridge in 1949.

The old wall, that sturdies the bridge, goes down 13 feet into the ground, where it spreads out to act as a base. New construction will implant metal shafts 23 feet into the ground, but one of the shafts, on the northern end near Tlaquepaque, will hit the old concrete base 13 feet down.

ADOT and the contractor, Southwest Asphalt Paving, are currently in negotiations with designers to determine if it is more cost effective to remove the old bridge wall or relocate the new shaft a few feet and leave the old abutment underground.

“The underground portion is not unexpected,” Burkhalter said. “We are just seeing if we can leave it in place and work around it and save time and money for the project.”

Despite the setback, ADOT predicts the project will still be complete by the end of 2009 or early 2010, within the original two-year time frame for the $3.5 million bridge project. Work on the bridge began in February.

The bridge work is a massive project within ADOT’s $40 million, State Route 179 phase II project,  which spans along State Route 179 from Back o’ Beyond to State Route 89A.

Along with a new 18-foot high, two-lane vehicle bridge, a 180-foot long pedestrian bridge will sit roughly 45 feet away. All utilities have been moved to run under the pedestrian bridge so that no utility pipes run along the vehicle bridge, Burkhalter said.

The two bridges will make a triangle, with the point at the northern end, near Tlaquepaque. The widest gap between the pedestrian bridge and the vehicle bridge will be at the south end, where a park will go in near the incoming roundabout at Schnebly Hill Road.

In a few months, traffic will be moved to the new vehicle bridge, Burkhalter said. At that point, the old bridge will be demolished in order for the rest of the new bridge to be completed.