Updated: Friday January 12 5:30 p.m.
A community meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at 7PM concerning the Randall Avenue bridge, 2501 Bath Road, Bristol Township administration building, officials announced this week.
Township manager Randee Elton said at the meeting a status update will be provided
A flyer mailed has been mailed to the affected residents, officials said Friday.
Amtrak and elected officials will also be on hand, the announcement says.
Randal Ave Bridge Closed
Credit: Lower Bucks Source
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Locals are going to get the opportunity to share their thoughts with Bristol Township officials in the coming weeks, as part of a yet to be announced public forum, covering the Randall Avenue Bridge closed now for about 10 months.
Bristol Township Manager Randee Elton announced the proposed gathering during the December council meeting.
She said the meeting would be for residents most impacted by the bridge closure and said she expects to announce a date sometime soon.
The 169-foot span bridge in the Edgely section of the township has been closed since February after chunks of the bridge fell onto the ground and onto the Amtrak and SEPTA rail lines below.
The bridge is considered “vital” to traffic flow in the Bristol area.
Last summer, Elton said the township has applied for grants from the state economic development funds and continues to seek resolution on what exactly to do to move forward on dealing with the bridge.
We keep applying for grants to either demolish or rebuild the bridge, she said, but the costs will still be prohibitive.
Last summer, officials learned the hi-rail inspection needed to be rescheduled due to its lack of availability.
It might take two to three more months before the required inspection can be completed she said in August.
The township has faced myriad challenges with getting the special hi-rail train that Amtrak requires.
Township engineers say a detailed analysis of the bridge’s damages is needed before moving forward with any concrete plan.
The township is set to put $975,000 worth of repair work into the bridge through a PennDOT grant before it was closed. Those funds are still available to be used.
That project seeks to support bridge abutments by applying resin to encase the concrete and reinforce it, officials said earlier this year.
“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.
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