MILANVILLE, PA & SKINNERS FALLS, NY – During a virtual public meeting on Tuesday, December 17 the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) announced its new plan to now permanently destroy the currently standing Skinners Falls Bridge which connects the communities of Milanvile, Pennsylvania and Skinners Falls, New York. 

This is a reversal of the project team’s previous plan of only dismantling the bridge, which has been closed to vehicular traffic since 2019, and storing its pieces for later use. 

In the public meeting, the project team said that they evaluated several disassembly options, which included lowering spans of the bridge to the ground with a large crane before dismantling it there. However, the team was concerned with the safety of this method and determined that the bridge would not be able to be picked up and moved without putting the workers and the public in danger. 

As they explained the need for a demolition of the bridge, the project team referenced an inspection report from October. Rich Roman, District Executive of PennDOT District 4, said that the main concern coming out of the inspection was a downgrade of the structure from “critical” to a “failed state.” 

“One of our main concerns is that abatement on the New York side of the river,” Roman said. “That abatement is actually starting to shift and rotate in a manner that we cannot control, and we cannot predict what it is going to do or how it is going to function.”

Roman also added that there is concern that the New York abatement could collapse during winter in the Northeast as precipitation gets behind it and starts to move around with the change of temperatures. 

“There is no predicting it, so there is a major concern on behalf of the department,” he said. “And that is leading us to an approach to remove the superstructure of the pier and the abatement as quickly as possible.”

PennDOT took a step toward getting the demolition project underway, as there is still a significant amount of administrative work to get done before it can begin. On Monday, December 16, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued a declaration of emergency for the project to speed up the process of demolition.

“We do have an emergency declaration in place to expedite the steps that we need to take to do the right thing here by removing the structure along with our inspection done by Pennsylvania,” Roman added. “The Federal Highway Administration Pennsylvania Division has reviewed our MBIS inspection and are in concurrence with the failed state of the bridge.”

“This is a serious concern that the deteriorated structure would not survive the pick and move by a crane,” Lisa Brozey of PennDOT’s project consultant AECOM said. “With the condition of the bridge, if the trusses would collapse during the pick or the lift, it would result in catastrophic crane collapse.”

Brozey noted that the time needed to design and implement a safer method of a lift-pick disassemble is “not reasonable given the bridge’s rapidly deteriorating condition.” 

Executive Director of the Upper Delaware Council (UDC) Laurie Ramie, speaking on behalf of the UDC, said, “We are extremely disappointed over the loss of this bridge after steadfastly advocating for the preservation of this unique, historical gem which we believe could have been rehabilitated based on all the studies done for millions of dollars, had it not been left to deteriorate for six years of closure with a questionable inspection schedule. 

“Currently, we do not know what the future holds for crossing there, but we do know that the landscape will be forever changed. There is no true mitigation possible,”Ramie concluded.

The report from the inspection did not contain any reference to the possibility of the bridge being destroyed, instead identifying $261,290 worth of “Priority 1” repairs to be conducted on the bridge within the following six months. That is only a small portion of the total of $2,881,165 in maintenance recommendations from the report. 

Demolition approach

The project team hopes to have the demolition done in late winter or early spring, with two options being considered. The first option would be a causeway going the full width of the river and the second option is with a partial causeway. 

According to Brozey, the causeway would go from the New York side to approximately 25 feet beyond the center pier. The demolition team would then drop the New York side of the bridge knot the causeway and the Pennsylvania side would be dropped into the river and pulled up onto the causeway. 

Brozey stated that one of the means that they anticipate to be used to drop the bridge onto the causeway is through explosive charges. She also added that the New York abatement and central pier would be removed while the Pennsylvania abatement would be stabilized. 

Ramie also added that at the UDC’s Project Review Committee meeting on Tuesday night, December 17, the National Park Service and UDC determined that they will likely pursue a joint substantial conformance review of the project in order to assess the impacts the demolition will have on the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River’s Land and Water Use Guidelines. 

“Given that this is being pursued under Governor Shapiro’s emergency declaration to expedite the bridge’s removal however, that may be for due diligence documentation after the fact,” Ramie said. 

Vincent kurzrock | democrat

Skinners for AK -- The Skinners Falls Bridge is now set to be demolished permanently as decided in a new plan announced by PennDOT this week.