The present century-old bridge cannot handle emergency vehicles, school buses

SHOHOLA – First, the good news:  PennDOT has a time schedule to get the next few steps of the process in building a new Pond Eddy Bridge accomplished this year.   The bad news for all concerned is the possibility that a new bridge will not be completed until around 2013 when all studies are complete and environmental concerns addressed.

The residents of Shohola and Pond Eddy got another chance to hear information about that status of the Pond Eddy Bridge Project. Representatives from PennDOT, NTM Engineering, Michael Baker, Inc. engineering firm, and Erdman Anthony Construction all gave a brief overview as to what they have done in approximately the last year to help the project along.

Many of the residents and officials, including Shohola Fire Chief Don Wall, were not happy with the timeline.

Chief Wall’s main concern is safety for those residents. “I can’t send a fire truck or emergency equipment across the bridge because of the low weight limit. I hope no one has a house fire,” he said.

Shohola Road Master Bob Myers said that he can’t get a road crew across the bridge to do any road repairs. Some felt that it would take an accident on the bridge or someone dying because of the poor condition of the bridge to speed up the process.  

In the last year and a half hydraulic studies have been done to see what effect the building of a new bridge would have on possible flood levels. Engineers used previous data from the 1980’’s on flood levels and the FEMA process to update statistics of possible future flood levels. They used information from the 2006 flooding of the Delaware River. They wanted to find out if there was an alternate replacement option that would not have an impact on flooding. Their plan would be to construct a 4 span bridge with 3 tiers in the water. This bridge would apparently not cause flooding on Mill Brook, on the Pond Eddy, New York side.

Eric March, from the Michael Baker Engineering Firm who did an independent review and gave recommendations to PennDOT,  went through a list of reports dating back to 1986 that his firm studied on the inspections, and deterioration of various parts of the present bridge. With everything from the deck, stringers, floor beams, pin connections, and piers in some form of deterioration and need of replacement to try and get the present 7 ton weight limit up, the firm considers replacement of the present bridge a prudent option. “Fixing the bridge totally would maybe add another 20 years to its life and cost more than replacing the whole bridge with a new one,” he commented.

Bob Leonard, of Erdman Anthony, talked about the constructability of a new bridge. To eliminate the possibility of a 100 year change in the water levels of the river, a new structure would be built higher than the present one. More work would be needed on the New York side than the Pennsylvania side of the bridge. It would be built close to the actual bridge as possible with temporary construction access close to that.

The audience was concerned with possible closing and interference with traffic on Route 97. Some were concerned with the effect of river traffic. They were assured that all areas of concern have been thought about and would be patterned after the recently constructed Shohola-Barryville Bridge.

Alternatives to construction of a new bridge, such as adding on to and rebuilding Parkers Glen Road or building a new road through the state gamelands for Pond Eddy, residents to gain access to their homes, was also studied and deemed not practical to do.