Frog Hollow Road residents will be delighted to hear that the legal wrangling with the state Department of Transportation appears to be over, and reconstruction of the long-closed Speakman Covered Bridge could begin in 2014. The 1881 bridge over the Buck Run has been closed since it was damaged by a truck, forcing those who live on the road to make a detour all the way north to Strasburg Road whenever they needed to travel anywhere.
Bridge reconstruction has been delayed because one neighboring landowner, Jeff Seder of Houyhnhnm Farm, objected to PennDot's plans.
"I'm happy to say that Jeff has settled with PennDot," announced West Marlborough Township supervisor Michael Ledyard at the board's April 2 meeting. As part of the agreement between Mr. Seder and PennDot, an independent engineer will test the parts of the bridge that Mr. Seder does not think need to be replaced, and PennDot will not remove the bridge from the National Register of Historic Places.
"This is great news for everyone involved," Mr. Ledyard said, especially those who live on Frog Hollow Road.
[By the way, Houyhnhnm Farm is not a typo. In Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," the Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses.]
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