County Reopens Buckingham/Solebury Bridge

Early Tuesday afternoon, Bucks County Commissioner Chairman Robert Loughery joined Director of Special Projects Joseph Bush and representatives from Carroll Engineering and Blooming Glen Contractors, Inc. to re-open Bucks County Bridge No. 162.

The bridge, built in 1954, is a 28-foot long by 30-foor wide single span steel beam bridge with an open grid steel deck.  It carries Street Road over Pidcock Creek along the border of Buckingham and Solebury Townships and was closed back in May 2012, due to significant structural deterioration discovered during a regularly scheduled biennial bridge inspection. 

The scope of the bridge rehabilitation consisted of replacement of the bridges steel beams and bearings, reconstruction of the abutment backwalls, installation of structure mounted bridge railing, construction of stone faced reinforced concrete approach parapets and moment slabs, installation of approach guiderail, repaving of the approaches, minor repairs to the reinforced concrete substructure, and the installation of stone rip rap scour protection at the abutments. 

The existing steel grid deck, still in good condition, was able to be reincorporated into the structure with only minor repairs.

The bridge design and permitting was completed by Carroll Engineering Corporation of Warrington, Bucks County for $25,000.  Construction was performed by Blooming Glen Contractors Inc, of Blooming Glen, Bucks County at a cost of $327,000.