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Community Corner

Covered Bridge in New Britain Set for Repairs

Detour signs will be posted two weeks before the bridge is closed for construction.

When traffic first crossed the Pine Valley Covered Bridge in New Britain, the sound neighbors heard was the clip-clop of horses’ hooves.

Fast forward 169 years, and that sound has been replaced by the clank of loose bolts and wooden decking bouncing up and down on a 21st century steel sub-deck as cars make their way across a span designed for equine and foot traffic.

“It sounds like cannon shots going off…People all over the borough hear it,” said Joe Cangelosi, who lives on Keeley Avenue adjacent to the Bucks County-owned bridge on Old Iron Hill Road. “It’s beyond an annoyance.”

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After years of waiting, that annoyance may soon come to an end. Repairs to the decking and the top of the Doylestown Township side of the bridge – damaged when a truck hit it – are scheduled to begin this spring. An exact start date has not been set.

The work is expected to take about 60 days and includes removing every board, each with a series of bolts, some of which have been welded, said Joe Bush, Director of Special Projects for Bucks County. He said the new boards have been cut, and new bolts have been ordered. County employees will provide the labor.

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Repairing the bridge will involve a detour approved by the police chiefs of New Britain Borough and Doylestown and New Britain townships. Bush said notice of the detour would be posted on signs installed in the area two weeks in advance of construction.

“If there’s any way we can get it done quicker, we will,” he said.

Bucks County originally had 54 covered bridges. Today, the Pine Valley Covered Bridge is one of only 12 that remain.

The Pine Valley bridge was built in 1842 out of native pine and hemlock, according to The Bucks County Covered Bridge Society. The society was formed in 2007 to “preserve, protect and promote the care of Bucks County’s Historic covered bridges as a significant part of our area’s history, culture and development.”

Also known as the Iron Hill Bridge, the structure crosses Pine Run Creek on Old Iron Hill Road with a span of 81 feet.

“This is the most heavily traveled of the county’s covered bridges,” Bush said. Thousands of cars cross it every day, many of them too quickly, he added. “This shouldn’t be a covered bridge.”

Calling himself “the troll under the bridge,” a reference to the fairy tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, Cangelosi said he was the only person complaining about the noise, initially. But last fall a group of residents, along with the borough mayor and some members of council went to a county commissioners' meeting to ask for help.

Bush said the commissioners then asked him to get the project approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over bridges. “We haven’t stopped since,” Bush said. “We’re just about ready to go.”

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