Lehigh Valley Transportation Study takes inventory of smaller bridges in search of repair options

There are 237 such bridges - spanning between 8 and 20 feet - in Lehigh and Northampton counties, according to an inventory survey, and most are 60 to 70 years old.

The smaller bridges scattered across the Lehigh Valley are often overlooked, but officials hope those days are over with a new inventory of spans shorter than 20 feet.

The Lehigh Valley Transportation Study announced Monday what they believe is the first step in maintaining these structures, with the completion of a local bridge inventory of 237 bridges that span between 8 and 20 feet.

Pennsylvania is notorious for its aging bridge infrastructure, transportation study Secretary Joseph Gurinko said, and though the smaller, local bridges don’t get the most attention, they are often in the worst shape.

“We really did not have a good handle of the degree of this problem,” Gurinko said. “But the need is out there.”

Of the 1,288 bridges in Northampton and Lehigh counties, engineers narrowed the count of bridges with a 8- to 20-foot span to 237. Bridges larger than that size are inspected every other year by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The smaller ones can be overlooked for decades, according to the Lehigh Valley Transportation Study, a planning arm of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.

Gurinko said the inventory, believed to be the first of its kind locally, was requested by PennDOT as part of a project to begin restoring the state’s deteriorating infrastructure. The smaller bridges tend to be among the oldest, with many 60 to 70 years old, according to transportation study engineers.

The inventory tracks the location, measurements and structural makeup of the bridges, but does not rank them in order of repair needs.

“That will be the next step,” Gurinko said during Monday's meeting at the planning commission offices in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

What kind of money is available for repairs remains to be seen. Most of the smaller bridges targeted in the survey belong to private landowners or municipalities, neither of which is flush with cash, officials said.

PennDOT engineer Jay McGee said the Lehigh Valley is vying for a spot in a state pilot program that would help with small-sized bridge repairs. But officials admitted the wider issue of how municipalities will be able to pay for repairs, and the regulatory headaches that can go with them, remain an obstacle.

Lee A. Rackus, bureau chief of planning zoning and development in Whitehall Township, said until some of those issues are worked out, bridge repair will continue to be a tough sell to municipalities.

“You hide from it, as a municipality … because you just can’t afford it,” Rackus said. “If it’s going to cost you more than you have, you’re not going to do it.”

Rackus noted environmental regulations can accompany the permits for bridge repair, adding crippling costs to the work.

McGee said he and other state officials understand the stress.

“The department realizes this and realizes the issues facing the local municipalities because we deal with this stuff, too — on a different level,” McGee said. “But we need to make sure the public is traveling safely whether it’s on state or local roads.”