Nearly two years since Pennsylvania Department Of Transportation declared Zettlemoyer’s Bridge deficient after its yearly inspection, the bridge, which connects Long Road and about a dozen property owners to Route 143, has yet to receive any work, but that could change in the near future.
The County of Berks’ offices are working with the Greenwich Township Board of Supervisors to decide the bridge’s fate and whether it will undergo limited rehabilitation efforts or complete demolition.
Zettlemoyer’s Bridge was closed in September 2012 due to its deteriorating condition, according to the county’s Director of Facilities and Operations Ryan Hunter. The bridge was listed at a three-ton weight limit prior to being deemed unsafe for continued vehicular use. Although the County of Berks owns the bridge, it is important to Greenwich Township because of the surrounding roads.
‘We don’t own any of the roads that the bridges connect, nor do we own any of the waterways. But we own the actual bridge itself, so in most cases our property starts at one end of the bridge [and] ends at the other,’ Hunter said.
Greenwich Township owns Long Road, while Route 143 is owned by the state. Since the bridge is primarily a resource for the township’s residents, Hunter and the County of Berks set out to propose options that would best suit the township’s needs while still focusing on safety.
Hunter had several engineering firms inspect the bridge, and ultimately McCormick Taylor presented a feasibility study in September 2013 that outlined all of the available options and costs. These varied anywhere from demolition to removing the current structure and replacing it with an entirely new bridge.
‘The recommendation from the engineer came back that there was no option outside of demolition,’ Hunter said. ‘The costs to fix the bridge were so high, and when the costs compared to how long the fix would last, they basically said there’s no good option to fix the bridge.’
In addition, replacing the bridge was not a viable option for the county, according to Hunter, because ‘the bridge had such limited local appeal.’ Zettlemoyer’s Bridge is an important asset to a dozen or so property owners, but it is not responsible for thousands of vehicles a day like other county-owned bridges.
In December 2013, Hunter and Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt attended a Greenwich Township Board of Supervisors’ meeting to discuss the township’s options.
Option one revolved around a limited rehabilitation of the bridge that would cost the county approximately $650,000 to complete, with the agreement being that once completed, the county would pass over ownership of the bridge to Greenwich Township.
‘We would basically refresh the bridge with an anticipated life of another 10 to 15 years, and the theory being that that 10 to 15 years would give the township the time to apply for federal funding, transportation funding, or whatever would fund either a greater fix 15 years from now or a full replacement,’ Hunter said.
Zettlemoyer’s would be restored to around a 10-ton weight limit, which would allow it to once again handle residential traffic, but still not emergency response vehicles. Prior to its closing, however, the bridge’s three-ton weight limit could not support such vehicles anyway.
The second option was to demolish the bridge, which would cost the county approximately $360,000. The remaining difference between what the county would have spent on a temporary fix to the bridge would then be given as a grant to the township to fix Long Road, which is a secondary route to access Route 143.
According to Hunter, Long Road is currently serpentine, and it could use roadwork to straighten it out and put a new finish on it.
At this time, Greenwich Township is still deliberating on what action to take with Zettlemoyer’s Bridge.
‘The township has the greatest vested interest in what’s best for their residents,’ Hunter said. ‘We want to really leave it up to them to make the final decision.’
The Greenwich Township Board of Supervisors could not be reached for comment on this story.
