PennDOT Lays Out Scenario for Royersford-Spring City Bridge Repairs

The bridge connecting Main Street in Royersford and Bridge Street in Spring City will be closed during the night for five to six weeks this summer, PennDOT told officials from both muncipalities on Friday.

In addition to the overnight closures, one lane on the bridge will be closed during the midday hours on two or three weekends during the summer.

PennDOT emphasized that the 89-year-old bridge, which is part of State Road 1043, is "safe for use," despite being in "serious condition."

Repair work on the bridge's substructure has already been underway for several weeks.

Michael Cuddy of TranSystems, the designer on the project, said the work plan was specifically designed to avoid the full time closure of the bridge for any length of time.

"Understanding how much traffic is on the bridge...to do any other type of work would require long term closure of the bridge.  Part of the design of the project was to see what kinds of repair mechanisms we could come up with that would have minimal impact on the traffic," Cuddy said.

PennDOT construction engineer Steve Laws said the repairs "will not be a permanent fix" and that the aging bridge will need complete replacement at some indeterminate future date.  Temporary repairs were last applied to the bridge during the summer of 2005.

"Someday [complete replacement] is going to happen to this bridge. I think we can fully expect that the bridge is going to continue to deteriorate," Laws said.

When asked by Spring City Borough Councilman Mike Hays exactly when the overnight closures would begin, Laws estimated that those closures would begin in mid-June and last through July.

Signs advertising the impending overnight closures will go up at least two weeks in advance, PennDOT said.

PennDOT's detour plan during the overnight closures calls for traffic to be rerouted via Route 422 and Schuylkill Road (Route 724).

At a minimum, Laws said, the bridge will be open from 5:00am to 10:00pm seven days a week.

Royersford borough manager Mike Leonard was critical of what he saw as PennDOT's failure to adequately communicate with the affected municipalities about the bridge project.

"No disrespect to you guys, but your communication has been like...nothing," said Leonard.

PennDOT safety press officer Jennifer Robinson noted that her office had published a press release about the closure in early January.

"We're directly affected by this. Our main street is affected by this. So is Spring City's. You need more than just general communications. You really need to deal with the two municipalities that are affected by this," Leonard said.

Leonard said he was unaware work on the underside of the bridge had begun until the project's general contractor approached him and asked for the use of municipal property to stage his equipment.

Friday morning's unadvertised meeting between PennDOT and municipal officials was convened after Leonard and Spring City officials reached out to contacts they had personally established within PennDOT and requested a briefing.

PennDOT said it was possible the repair schedule could be extended or otherwise modified depending on what additional problems are revealed by early work on the bridge's road surface.

"The truth won't be known until the deck [i.e., the road surface] is torn up. That's our reservation," Laws said.