Wangum Road Bridge
Photos
Elevation.
How does PennDOT deal with a beautiful historic bridge crossing a spectacular water fall on a road that serves only two full time residents? Bring in the bulldozers and tear it out!
Photo taken by Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
BH Photo #176853
Description
This bridge serves 2 full time residents. It crosses the creek directly above a spectacular waterfall. The bridge is eligible for the National Register as an early riveted Warren pony truss.The approaching roadway is a narrow one-lane road with shear rock on either side.
PennDOT plans to demolish and replace this historic bridge with a MOB (Mail Order Bridge) truss structure. This ugly galvanized, welded structure is supposed to look like the historic riveted truss bridge. This replacement structure was selected because the new bridge will provide a 45 ton weight limit.
It is not clear how or why any traffic that weighs 45 tons would even dream of using this road.
Facts
- Overview
- Pony truss bridge over Middle Creek on TR 367
- Location
- Wayne County, Pennsylvania
- Status
- Replaced by a new bridge
- Future prospects
- Slated for demolition and replacement.
- History
- Built 1903; rehabilitated 1944
- Design
- Warren pony truss
- Dimensions
-
Span length: 88.9 ft.
Total length: 88.9 ft.
Deck width: 16.2 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- Middle Creek Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +41.49590, -75.24887 (decimal degrees)
41°29'45" N, 75°14'56" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 18/479227/4593838 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Hawley
- Average daily traffic (as of 1998)
- 65
- Inventory numbers
- PA 63 7216 0367 0129 (Pennsylvania Bridge Management System number)
PANBI 35867 (Pennsylvania BRKEY bridge number on the 2011 NBI)
BH 31809 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of August 2014)
- Overall condition: Poor
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 37.5 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- January 25, 2020: Updated by Art Suckewer: replaced
- January 10, 2011: Updated by Nathan Holth: Updated description to elaborate on absurdity of replacement plans.
- September 9, 2010: Updated by Nathan Holth: This bridge is now doomed.
Sources
- Nathan Holth
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- Art Suckewer - Asuckewer [at] knite [dot] com
Comments
there is a google post on this bridge. I would say that it is not the outcome we wanted when we did a site visit, but it did preserve a road, a view of the falls and you can't really see the back side of the fake rivets.
It's not a loss, they kept it a one lane road and this bridge will last a long time. The last had a lot of problems and it was a riveted pony truss, in the scheme of historic bridges it is a loss, but it's not a failure.
I know the difference, one gets blown up, the other is replaced with something similar.
As per what was reported on the forum page this bridge was replaced.Thanks to Tony Zadjura for mentioning this.Noticed there are differences between this bridge and the old one.
I think PennDOT will need a trophy case to hold all of their well-deserved awards!!
My first one of these given out this year!..... Anyone shocked that it's going to PennDOT?
PennDOT wants to demolish this bridge which is one of the most scenic settings in Pennsylvania, the truss crossing over a waterfall. Truly heartless.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/pa/wayne/637216036701290/
http://www.neagle.com/news/20160712/wangum-bridge-open-to-pu...
Wangum Falls Bridge opened to the public on June 24, 2016.
The one-lane steel truss bridge crosses the waterfalls on Middle Creek, on Wangum Road, Township Route 367.
PennDOT chose a design to carefully match the historic appearance, after much concern was expressed by preservationists. The state had it listed for replacement since 2002. Normally the state would not build a steel truss, but rather install a modern concrete span.
The former bridge was considered historic due to being an excellent example of a field riveted design, and the unique setting with a narrow rock cut on the east side where a historic gravity railroad passed.