Politics & Government

'Structurally Deficient' Lower Merion Bridges Slated For Repair

PennDOT rates the state's estimated 25,000 bridges based on structural integrity after inspecting them at least once every two years.

Eight "structurally deficient" bridges in Lower Merion and  are slated for repair or replacement in the next one to four years, according to state and local officials.

A recent report from the lobbying group Transportation For America, using Pennsylvania Department of Transportation data, identified bridges throughout the state that qualify for construction grants, based on their structural-integrity ratings on a scale of 0 to 100.

Lower Merion hopes to start rebuilding Pennswood Road's bridge over the Paoli-Thorndale SEPTA line in Bryn Mawr and Union Avenue's over the Cynwyd Line in Bala Cynwyd within two years, said Don Cannon, public works director of Lower Merion Township.

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"Both bridges are orphan (formerly railroad) bridges and do not belong to the township. The township has agreed to participate in the rebuilding of the bridge by funding 20 percent of the design cost and up to 5 percent of the construction cost and in return agrees to own them once they are rebuilt," Cannon said. "This is how the Church Road, Merion Avenue, Bowman Avenue and River Road bridges were rebuilt in recent years."

As for other low-rated bridges on Remington Road in Wynnewood, Black Rock Road in Gladwyne and New Gulph Road in Bryn Mawr, "there are no timelines for repairs ... in that there is really nothing to repair," Cannon said. "The recommendations were just for things like improved signage."

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The borough of Narberth has its own distressed bridges in the Narberth Avenue and Rockland Avenue spans over the Paoli-Thorndale Line. The Rockland bridge is closed to traffic and borough officials are pursuing its removal, after which they hope by 2013 to start on rebuilding the Narberth Avenue bridge.

Montgomery County owns Morris Avenue's bridge over Mill Creek in Bryn Mawr. Don Colosimo, director of the county's Department of Roads and Bridges, said the bridge "is scheduled for repairs in the near future."

Two other bridges rated "structurally deficient" by PennDOT, on Conshohocken State Road and Mill Creek Road, have been recently repaired, the director added.

Pennsylvania has the greatest proportion of "structurally deficient" bridges of any state, according to PennDOT. It also has control of three Schuylkill Expressway bridges in the township that are structurally deficient.

"This is not a safety condition. This is not a condition that is galloping out of control," said Chuck Davies, a design executive for PennDOT's District 6, which includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. "There are a number of bridges in the interstate system that are far more serious than these. It's pretty typical stuff for bridges of this type: rust on beams, corrosion of steel girders ... nothing that's causing loss of structural capacity."

The three bridges—which span Waverly, Mill Creek and Righters Ferry roads—should cost about $12 million to fix, but that money isn't available now and the projects are only in the design phase anyway, Davies said. He projected completion within four years.

Even though some bridges on local roads are in worse shape than the expressway bridges, they may be completed first because they carry so many more vehicles, Davies said: "There are problems on some lower-volume roads that maybe we could live with that we couldn't on the Schuylkill Expressway."

PennDOT's website contains spreadsheets with all area bridges and their ratings.

Location Control Length in feet Year built Rating Vehicles daily Plans Pennswood Road (over Paoli-Thorndale Line), Bryn Mawr Lower Merion 76 1902 17 3,500 Start work within 2 years Rockland Avenue (over Paoli-Thorndale Line) Narberth 120 1902 17 (closed) Start work this year Narberth Avenue (over Paoli-Thorndale Line) Narberth 109 1902 17 5,000 Start work within 2 years Union Avenue (over Cynwyd Line), Bala Cynwyd Lower Merion 65 1911 19.5 750 Start work within 2 years Morris Avenue (over Mill Creek), Bryn Mawr Montgomery County 61 1925 25.6 1,800 Repairs "in the near future" Belmont Avenue (over Schuylkill River), Bala Cynwyd Philadelphia 564 1928 38 20,000 Unknown Remington Road (over Indian Creek), Wynnewood Lower Merion 22 1955 40 10,000 No full-scale construction required Schuylkill Expressway (over Waverly Road), Gladwyne PennDOT 118 1951 52 40,300 Finish within 4 years Schuylkill Expressway (over Mill Creek Road), Penn Valley and Gladwyne PennDOT 329 1951 52 40,300 Finish within 4 years Schuylkill Expressway (over Righters Ferry Road), Bala Cynwyd PennDOT 235 1952 52 45,400 Finish within 4 years Black Rock Road (over Mill Creek) Lower Merion 30 1908 52.7 1,000 No full-scale construction required Gulph Road (over Mill Creek) Lower Merion 30 1930 55.4 2,100 No full-scale construction required


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