A court order protected Skinners Falls Bridge for another day as engineers called for its demolition to protect human lives at Friday’s hearing.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) planned to begin demolition of the historic Baltimore truss bridge on Thursday, April 10, but advocates filed for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, April 8, to protect the structure.
The case went to federal court since Skinners Falls is an interstate bridge connecting Milanville and Skinners Falls, New York, and its demolition is part of a project funded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA,)
U.S. District Court Judge Karoline Mehalchick presided over the case at the William J. Nealon Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Scranton Friday.
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Delaware River Watershed, and local activist Cynthia Nash are listed as plaintiffs. They filed the motion against the FHWA and Sean Duffy, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Attorney Andrea Ferster argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, who did not called witnesses. She said that PennDOT did not do its due diligence in considering alternatives to demolition, since the bridge is historically significant. Because it’s registered twice in the National Register of Historic Places, Ferster said PennDOT must complete any emergency repairs and stabilize the bridge.
Ferster added that transportation officials used "inaccurate" and "contradictory" information as to why they should demolish the bridge. That information included arguments on whether PennDOT could secure the bridge by using netting to protect nearby residents from falling debris, she said.
On Dec. 16, Gov. Josh Shapiro issued an emergency order for PennDOT to remove the bridge after officials received eyewitness accounts of pieces of the bridge falling into the water.
Mehalchick asked the defendant’s lawyer, Richard Euliss, an assistant attorney for the U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania, if this case could set a precedent for PennDOT to be able to demolish structures without considering alternatives if it is granted an emergency order by the governor.
Euliss responded that he “trusts the system” and that Skinners Falls will fall on its own, regardless of what PennDOT or any other transportation authority does.
The bridge is “useless,” Euliss argued. It is “not past the point of historical significance, but past the point of no return.”
He called two witnesses to the stand, Benjamin Harvey and Ezequiel “Zeke” Lujan from the Federal Highway Administration.
Harvey, an environmental specialist, explained that PennDOT considered several alternatives to demolition over nearly a four-year period, through a Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) study. That study included several public hearings, where residents from both communities gave input on the project. In his professional opinion, he said the bridge has failed all safety standards and should be demolished.
Lujan, a senior bridge engineer, added that the bridge is “at risk for imminent failure.”
He explained that the bridge has slowly been moving on its own without anyone on it. He described the bridge’s structure as a kind of chain, where the bridge as a whole is “only as strong as its weakest link." Several parts of the bridge have eroded, leaving large portions of metal missing from its structure.
“The masonry [of the bridge] is pulling itself apart…[the bridge] is melting,” said Lujan.
The bridge could easily harm anyone that comes near it, Lujan said. Any attempts to salvage the bridge would put workers’ lives at risk.
Lujan said, with a tone of finality, “we are witnessing a slow motion collapse.”
