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PennDOT is trying to save bridges on the National Register of
Historic Places that are not up to the demands of modern
traffic. Prices range from $1 to $500, and moving costs can
often be paid by the Federal Highway Administration.
The catch is that the buyer must reuse the bridge somewhere else
and is responsible for all associated costs.
“They can’t be sold for scrap,” Erin Waters-Trasatt, a PennDOT
spokeswoman, said on Monday. “They need to be rehabilitated and
preserved.”
One of the bridges for sale is the 111-year-old Pond Eddy Bridge
over the Delaware River between Shohola Township, Pennsylvania,
and Pond Eddy, New York. Built in 1903, the metal truss bridge
is 252 feet long and 16 feet wide.
Another is the 115-year-old Craighead Bridge in South Middleton
Township, Pennsylvania. Kayakers see the bottom of that bridge
as they glide by on the scenic Yellow Breeches Creek.
“It’s covered with lead paint,” said Brian O’Neill, the township
engineer. “It would be cost prohibitive for us to take it over.”
In addition to the 11 bridges for sale, PennDOT has already sold
nine spans, including the Meadowview Road Bridge in Dover
Township, Pennsylvania. That bridge was sold to the township,
which installed it in a new park for about $20,000 - the price
for constructing concrete abutments. A new bridge would have
cost at least twice that amount, township Manager Laurel Oswalt
said.
Another purchaser was Art Suckewer, founder and chief executive
of Knite, Inc, a technology company in Princeton, New Jersey,
who bought two bridges to provide an "elegant solution" to
getting around his 30-acre farm, he told the Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette.
Any bridges that fail to sell will be demolished to make way for
new spans, Waters-Trasatt said.
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Peter Cooney)
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Want
to buy a bridge? Pennsylvania still has 11 for sale
