PennDOT to ‘fix’ Pond Eddy Bridge

By TOM KANE

SHOHOLA, PA - There won’t be a new Pond Eddy bridge built anytime soon.

The old bridge will receive some immediate repairs this month from PennDOT so that its weight limit can be restored to seven tons from a recent downgrading to four tons.

When it was recently discovered that a number of beams beneath the bridge are deteriorating, the downgrading status was imposed on the bridge to avoid a tragedy.

PennDOT officials recently outlined the plan to repair the bridge.

“The contractor, Fahs-Ralston, was to begin the repair work on Friday, December 1 and is expected to be finished no later than Friday, December 22,” said Robert Doble, PennDOT Assistant District Executive for Design.

By press time, the contractor was at the site doing preliminary work.

In a plan outlined at an earlier meeting in November, it was revealed that the work is to consist of the replacement of 14 steel beams. The contractor has confirmed that the work can take place from below the deck, allowing traffic to flow.

Any traffic impacts will be minimal, Doble said. Once the repairs are completed, the bridge posting will be raised to seven tons.

“This will still not allow fire equipment to cross the bridge in an emergency,” said Shohola supervisor George J. Fluhr.

“An ambulance will be able to pass over the bridge and, depending on the weight, some light fire trucks could,” Doble said.

A group of residents in New York has delayed the building of a new bridge for several years, resisting the building of a new one because the old bridge has historic significance. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York and Pennsylvania historic registers.

“It would have cost about $10 million to restore the bridge and it still would have been inadequate,” Fluhr said.

Fluhr said he was encouraged that PennDOT has begun the preliminary engineering work on the new bridge.

“I don’t see the new bridge being completed soon,” Doble said. “It will take at least two years because of the difference of opinion between the historic people in Pennsylvania and those in New York, and because the bridge’s right-of-ways have to be determined on both sides of the river by both states.”

The new bridge would be built immediately next to the present one because it is the narrowest point on the river, Doble said. “Moving it even a short distance in either direction would put the cost up considerably.”