Old Bucks bridges are repair priority

By Riley Yates

The Morning Call

May 07, 2008

Aging bridges in Upper Bucks County do well under a proposed plan for highway improvements in the next four years.

With the state focusing on fixing deficient bridges and other infrastructure, half the 57 Bucks County projects outlined for funding by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission involve the replacement or repair of problem spans.

Of those, 19 are in Upper Bucks -- including five in Tinicum Township, three in Milford Township and two each in Nockamixon, Haycock and Hilltown townships -- a signal of the changed priorities amid concerns the state hasn't done enough to keep its bridges safe.

''Bridges are in terrible shape,'' said Charles Dougherty, who manages the commission's Transportation Improvement Plan, which charts future efforts. ''The capital programs are being redirected to address the bridge issue.''

The fiscal 2009-12 draft plan lists $4 billion in projects in the greater Philadelphia area, including $224.8 million for Bucks. A draft was released last week and is open for public comment.

A public meeting on the plan will be 4 to 6 p.m. next Wednesday at Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's conference center on North Independence Mall West in Philadelphia. The regional commission and the state Transportation Commission must approve the plan.

Statewide, Pennsylvania has nearly 6,000 bridges that have been flagged as in need of repair. State officials say it would cost $11 billion to fix them all. Gov. Ed Rendell has pushed for more funding for aging infrastructure and has called on the state Transportation Department to upgrade 1,000 bridges in three years.

That's good news for Upper Bucks, where aging spans have forced detours and slowed traffic and emergency response times.

Milford Township Manager Jeff Vey noted the collapse last summer of a bridge in Minneapolis, which killed 13 people and injured 145. Fixing bridges is critical, said Vey, whose township is in line for $5.2 million in bridge projects under the proposed plan.

''I don't want to be driving over a bridge as it's falling into the water, do you?'' Vey said. ''This is about as basic a business as you get.''

For others, the proposals were a case of too little, too late.

Tinicum Supervisor Gary Pearson said fixes to the five bridges in his township have been long coming. Tinicum, like many Delaware River communities, has struggled to rebuild after being hard hit by floods in recent years.

Pearson lives near Geigel Hill Road Bridge, a one-and-a-half lane bridge slated to be replaced and widened.

''I bought my house 18 years ago,'' Pearson said. ''They've been talking about replacing that bridge since that time. These all should have been done years ago and there are others that probably have similar problems.''

The transportation plan is made up of federal, state and some local funds and outlines the course of projected construction spending.

Some road projects got put on the back burner under the proposal -- including the Portzer Road Connector in Richland Township and Quakertown, which would be a two-lane connector from Route 663 to Route 309 to ease congestion at a busy Upper Bucks area.

With rising construction costs and limited resources, not all proposals can be done immediately, PennDOT spokesman Charlie Metzger said.

''It's a matter of prioritizing and getting out as many projects as we can,'' Metzger said.

riley.yates@mcall.com 215-529-2607

Copyright © 2008 The Morning Call, All Rights Reserved.