UPDATE: PennDOT delays Skinner Falls Bridge removal to mid-March in an announcement made on Feb. 26
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) will start tearing down the historic Skinners Falls Bridge on Wednesday, Feb. 26.
Activists from Milanville, Pa., and Skinners Falls, N.Y started fighting for the bridge’s preservation in October 2019, after PennDOT closed it due to structural issues. Built in 1901, the bridge is one of the nation’s last Baltimore truss bridges and is listed twice on the National Register of Historic Places. It connects Wayne County, Pa. and Sullivan County, N.Y. over the Delaware River and was built as an alternative to a locally-run ferry system.
Now, five years after its closure, PennDOT announced Monday that it will remove the bridge “as quickly as possible to prevent an uncontrolled collapse.”
Residents from both communities say PennDOT’s inaction allowed its deterioration.
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, is leading efforts to protect the bridge.
But PennDOT officials say the bridge must be removed immediately.
In a Dec. 17 virtual meeting, Richard Roman, District Executive for PennDOT’s Northeast Region warned of imminent collapse.
“We have a concern of a collapse of the New York abutment,” Roman said. “We don't know when that would happen. There's no predicting it, but we are concerned when we have that, that there is a threat to the public health and welfare and really the river recreational traffic underneath the bridge.”
Both the National Park Service and a private company, Lander’s River Trips, run boat launches near the bridge.
Lisa Brozey, vice president of AECOM, PennDOT’s engineer for the project, said at the Dec. 17 meeting that demolition is the only way to prevent bridge collapse while not endangering workers’ safety. AECOM will likely remove the bridge by using a causeway, which Brozey said was their “last resort.”
The removal may require blasting, Brozey added.
Today’s press release from PennDOT does not mention any use of blasting, but does state that a causeway will be built to aid in removal. The river surrounding the bridge will be closed off during a portion of construction, which PennDOT estimates will be completed by May 2025.
DCS proposed on Feb 19, less than a week before PennDOT’s removal announcement, to buy the bridge from PennDOT. It submitted a letter of interest that asks to “purchase the bridge for $1 and assume all liability and responsibility in exchange for funds in the amount of PennDOT’s engineering estimate of the restoration.”
PennDOT estimates bridge restoration would cost $16 million, according to DCS.
The letter states that “any funds beyond that $16 million” will be “raised by Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.”
For more information on the project, visit PennDOT’s Skinners Falls Bridge webpage.
