Old Township Bridge May Close

Take a look under the Yeakels Mill Road bridge and you may think twice about ever driving over it again.

The two steel beams that support the old bridge have corroded away. You can see daylight right through both of them.

The bridge over Perkiomen Creek is just a few car lengths from where Yeakels Mill Road meets busy Routes 100 and 29 at the south end of the township.

Like many small rural bridges, people zip right over it without even noticing it's there. But those who use the bridge certainly will notice if it's suddenly closed.

"We may be asked to close that bridge," township manager Dan DeLong announced at the Nov. 18 supervisors meeting. He said PennDOT contacted him that day to warn the township-owned bridge may fail the state's structural rating.

 "Because of the fascia beams' deterioration, they suspect it's not going to make it," said DeLong. "It may not be acceptable for traffic.

"At this point we know something's going to happen, but we don't know what it's going to be."

The 29-foot-long bridge has been at the top of the township's list of spans needing to be replaced for many years.

DeLong said preliminary work done several years ago showed replacing the bridge would cost $750,000, far more than the township has in its capital reserve fund.

Upper Milford's entire proposed budget for 2011 totals $1.87 million. DeLong said that includes $222,000 in capital reserves.

If something must be done, DeLong hopes the bridge can be repaired rather than replaced. But supervisor Steven Ackerman said extensive repairs would be required, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The manager said permanently closing Yeakels Mill Road at the bridge, rather than repairing or replacing it, is not a viable option.

The condition of the bridge continues to get worse, according to PennDOT spokesman Sean Brown. He said a PennDOT bridge consultant who recently inspected it will analyze data gathered within a couple of weeks and determine what needs to be done.

Brown said the consultant may recommend closing the bridge or just reducing its weight limit.

DeLong said its weight limit already has been reduced twice.

It's already posted with a weight limit and as a one-lane bridge.

DeLong said an alternative to repairing or replacing the bridge might be to make it a one-way bridge/road, adding that is the preliminary recommendation from the state.

"The center of the bridge is perfectly fine," said DeLong. "The bridge is only like 17 feet wide. I've never seen two cars pass there. But technically it's not one-lane wide.

"The fascia beams, the beams on either side, have to support the traffic on the edge of the bridge in case two vehicles are on it at the same time. Because they are deteriorated, it lowers the rating of the bridge."

Another complication is only enough room exists for a few cars to wait to cross the bridge on the eastern end. More cars waiting would create a back-up onto the highway.

A proper bridge reconstruction project would include widening Route 100/29 to add a turning lane onto Yeakels Mill Road, said DeLong.

The manager said any major bridge project could be complicated by the proximity of a Red Hill water main, which creates a small waterfall where is passes through the creek just upstream from the bridge. The line runs from a nearby spring to Red Hill, a borough in Montgomery County.