The county commissioners refused permission to the Standard Construction Company of Altoona to cross the Montoursville bridge across Loyalsock Creek with a steam shovel.

Word was telephoned to the commissioners’ office this morning at the courthouse about 11 a.m. that the company was at Montoursville with the shovel on a trailer.

Permission was sought to cross the bridge, but the county officials decided to go to Montoursville to view the shovel and talk to representatives of the company.

The shovel weighs 40 tons and following a conference it was decided best not to take it across the bridge. J.B. and C.K. Rogers of Altoona are the members of the company. It was finally decided to take the machinery to the Reading freight station, and have it shipped to the city by the railroad.

The Standard Construction Company had the contract for the concrete road at Clarkstown, which it completed. The shovel was being brought to Williamsport to be used in the construction of a concrete highway at the entrance to the Wildwood Cemetery. It was stated today that the commissioners refused similar use of the bridge last year to another contractor, who forded the stream some distance north of Montoursville in order to get the machinery on the west side of the creek.

Plans are being made by the state to replace the Montoursville bridge with a modern structure at a location south of the present structure.