Randall Ave Bridge Inspection Still Up in the Air

Bristol Township officials said  Thursday night the Randall Avenue bridge closed since February still has no inspection date set and could be up to two to three months before the required review occurs.

Bristol Township Manager Randee Elton said the Amtrak approved inspection of the aging and closed bridge is what’s needed before moving forward.

She said the planned for June  inspection was cancelled for Amtrak-approved hi-rail vehicle rental that because of its was not available and weather related challenges.

“We don’t quite have as quite as good news and expeditious workings for the concrete inspection of the concrete for the bridge that has failed a couple of times to get out there with the hi-rail truck as well as weather has pushed us off from Amtrak. Now we are not aware of when we’ll be able to get out there. It will be a couple of months because we could only find one specialty truck that meets Amraks requirements.”

The township applied for a $25  million dollar RAISE grant to replace the bridge however, it didn’t come to fruition. A nine million dollar grant to demolish the bridge, Elton said, was also not approved.

Elton said with help from state and federal officials the township is seeking other possible remedies.

Earlier this year “for immediate health, safety and welfare concerns” the bridge was shuddered, after pieces of it the bridge was falling onto the ground and the rail way below.

The township is set to put $975,000 worth of repair work into the bridge through a PennDOT grant before it was closed.

That project seeks to  support bridge abutments by applying a resin to encase the concrete and reinforce it, officials said earlier this year.

Sitting over the Edgely section of the township the 169- foot span bridge was constructed in 1919.

“The  average daily traffic over the bridge is approximately 400 cars per day with a cost to replace the bridge  upwards of $25 million dollars. With so many higher traffic volume bridges with structural  deficiencies in this region, we presume that the low volume of traffic does not make this bridge have  a high scoring grant application” officials said after closing the bridge 

Elton did say there was good news to report in terms of pedestrian safety and traffic on Radcliffe Street and Randall Avenue .

We’ve been successful in obtaining PennDOT permits for the Radcliffe Street and Randall Avenue traffic signal. It has been adjusted. It will remain green permanently now unless engaged by the pedestrian walkway push detector used to cross Radcliffe Street or the single family driveway on Radcliffe Street with the loop detector still engaged with the traffic signal, she said.