The Speakman Covered Bridge straddling West Marlborough and East Fallowfield Townships is slated to be repaired and reopened in 2015, Mark Myers told the West Marlborough supervisors at their April 1 meeting. And it was no April Fool's joke.
It's welcome news for the Frog Hollow Road residents, who have had to drive out of their way since the historic bridge over the Buck Run was closed in 2010 after being heavily damaged by an oversized truck.
Mr. Myers was at the township meeting to report on a recent meeting between federal and state officials and residents to discuss the bridge project. (The township supervisors had asked him to attend as a township representative and report back.) He said both federal and state funding for the project has been secured.
The repaired bridge will still be one lane wide and will have the same entrance and exit. It will be designed to bear 45 tons and will be supported by five concealed steel girders.
He said that at the meeting residents expressed distrust of PennDOT and said they were worried that the bridge might lose its National Historic Register status if PennDOT's plan changed the bridge too extensively, as had happened with recent bridge projects in Mortonville and Landenberg. The state officials said there would be mechanisms in place for citizens to monitor the planning process.
"I'm optimistic that a good bridge will come out of this," Mr. Myers said -- as long as all the parties "do what they say they're going to do."
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