National Park Service halts bridge repairs in Milford, Pa., over historic artifact

The National Park Service abruptly halted repairs to a bridge spanning the Sawkill Creek in Milford, Pa., after the discovery of a historic artifact connected to an old mill in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

The discovery and the delay raise questions about when needed repairs will be completed on the 82-year-old bridge, which has the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s lowest rating of “poor” and a reduced weight limit of 20 tons. 

Residents have spoken at Milford Borough Council and Pike County commissioner meetings about the bridge’s crumbling deck and superstructure and expressed concern that the bridge remain open. On average, it carries nearly 7,700 vehicles per day.

The Park Service has been planning repairs for a decade. And while the arch-deck bridge is not going to be completely replaced, work will include the installation of a temporary bridge to handle traffic during the project.

Jessica Ruddy, PennDOT’s community relations coordinator for District Four, said the Park Service deemed the property where PennDOT was digging to be historic.

Concerns about damaging house tied to Underground Railroad

Park Service officials stopped the project during excavations for supports for the temporary bridge, when a 12-foot-by-12-foot slab was found.

The slab is believed to be part of the millrace that was part of a sluice that fed water to the mill, later known as the Metz Icehouse, a historical building in the National Recreation Area.

Kara Deutsch, resource management and science division supervisor at the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, said the temporary bridge will span over and through several historic sites.

These sites include the Metz Icehouse and the Callahan House, a home dating to about 1800, believed to be a part of the Underground Railroad, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Deutsch said the plans related to the temporary bridge had changed after concerns were raised that the vibrations caused by the support pilings being driven into the ground could damage the Callahan house. 

With that change, the area PennDOT was working in shifted to a wider area, and that was when the artifact was discovered.

With that discovery, Deutsch said, “We have a temporary pause right now while that is documented, and we determine the mitigation measures to go forward with before they can proceed.”

The Park Service and PennDOT have met several times, Deutsch said the Park Service has offered mitigation recommendations. Deutsch said the artifact must be documented by an archeologist in case it’s damaged or moved during the construction process. 

The temporary bridge was expected to be in place by late May and was already several weeks behind when the discovery was made in early June. The project is expected to take a year, but PennDOT’s Ruddy said there is no update on when work will resume. In the meantime, PennDOT said the bridge is safe for drivers.