Historic bridge gets inspection as replacement plans more forward
By Anya Tikka
POND EDDY — The historic Pond Eddy Bridge is getting its annual inspection, with plans moving forward to replace it.
The bridge is slated to be dismantled and sold when the new interstate standard bridge is built starting in April 2016.
After years of planning and protests by citizens dismayed at losing an historic feature of the river valley, the new bridge project is going ahead, reports the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).
“The existing single-lane two-span petit through-truss structure founded on masonry abutments and pier will be replaced with a single-lane two-span steel through-truss structure similar in configuration and length to the existing bridge," PennDOT states on its website.
PennDOT says the new bridge will be located approximately 55 feet upstream of the existing bridge. Traffic will continue on the old bridge during construction.”
Simultaneous to the inspection, PennDOT crews were repairing Flagstone Road leading to the bridge.
A handful of year-round residents on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware river use the bridge, which is their only access to the outside world. They use it to cross Pond Eddy, N.Y., in the Town of Lumberland, and then connect to other roads. Rosa Road and Flagstone Road in Pond Eddy, Pa., connect only with the bridge.
In 1993, a PennDOT study found the bridge was not strong enough for heavy traffic. School buses, propane trucks and firetrucks were banned from using the bridge.
The historic bridge was placed on sale earlier this year. Currently, it’s still for sale to "preservation minded organizations." Pennsylvania will even cover moving costs.
If no buyer is found once the new bridge is built, the old bridge will be dismantled to allow the water underneath to flow more easily. The bridge can be sold either as a two-span or one-span bridge.
PennDOT said building the bridge will cause no adverse effects to the environment.
Some have suggested that the bridge is being built to accommodate hydrofracking — a controversial deep-drilling method to extract natural gas — expected to take place in state-owned land near the bridge. The interstate standard bridge will be built to carry the heavy trucking traffic associated with fracking, they say.
Residents who have lived on Flagstone or Rosa Road all their lives say that when they were young, there was a trail they could walk all the way to Milford. Old maps show a road extending there.
Online:
PennDOT’s Pond Eddy Bridge Replacement-Project Description: http://bit.ly/1AsMBVR