Pond Eddy bridge construction resumes

By Any tikka
POND EDDY — When construction crews working on the new Pond Eddy Bridge in September hit something on the ground that looked like stacked stones, the site’s archeological monitor, Allison Brewer, called a halt to construction.
“It looked like a wall, with stones stacked together with masonry,” she described.
Both new and old Pond Eddy Bridges are very close to the old Delaware and Huron canal bed that once ran along what’s now Route 97 on the New York side of the river.
The bridge is the only way to connect to other roads for the residents on the Shohola side of the bridge, because in Pennsylvania the road they live on along the river doesn’t connect to any other road. However, once there was a road over the mountain all the way to Milford, constructed reputedly to bring blue stone from the famous quarries in Pond Eddy.
It turned out the stone wall was actually part of the original bridge’s abutment and wing wall, and although the bridge is historic as well, it doesn’t require the same documentation and scrutiny.
Work resumed after almost a week’s closure. Latona Trucking and Excavation subcontractors started building again, with Brewer, a subcontractor for the main contractors D.A.Collins keeping a close eye on what’s going on.
Brewer said it was always a possibility something of historical value could be found, in which case several agencies would have to be called for much more involved investigation.
The old bridge will be torn down once the new one is ready, currently estimated in 2018 after a complex construction project involving moving huge rocks and building landings on alternate sides of the river to keep the water open at all times. Construction and tearing down the old bridge has faced widespread opposition from locals and environmentalists for years. The cost of building is estimated at $13.3 million, shared between New York and Pennsylvania.
The more extensive investigation would have brought in New York and Pennsylvania State Highways, Federal Highways, and Pennsylvania and New York Departments of Transportation for research and documentation, but eventually construction would have resumed, Brewer said.