Skinners Falls Bridge is “actively failing” and needs to be demolished, potentially with explosives, officials say

The Skinners Falls Bridge appears destined for an explosive ending akin to finale of the 1957 movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

Unlike the movie, which starred Sir Alec Guinness and told the story of World War II British POWs who were forced to construct a bridge for their Japanese captors, any explosive demolition will not result in a locomotive crashing into a heap, but instead mark the demise of a more than 120-year-old historic span on the Delaware that captured the hearts of local residents and history buffs.

The surprising announcement that the bridge needs to be demolished — instead of being dismantled and its parts preserved and inventoried as discussed last month — came this week at a public meeting led by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Lisa M. Brozey, vice president of transportation planning for the consulting company AECOM.

Officials warned that the bridge was in danger of imminent, catastrophic collapse. Since an inspection in April to one in October, the bridge showed significant decay, prompting inspectors to assign it a score of failing, downgraded from an earlier score of critical, Brozey said.

“The momentum toward failure is growing and growing,” said Richard N. Roman, the district executive for the northeastern region of PennDOT. “This bridge is well over a hundred years old, and it’s actively deteriorating to the point that we can’t save it or salvage it, and it needs to come down.”

‘Actively failing’

He described the bridge as “actively failing” and said plans to dismantle it had to be abandoned because it’s too unsafe for workers to be on the structure to take it apart. “We do not want anybody on this structure itself, not one person,” Roman said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an emergency order this week declaring the bridge a hazard to public safety and directing that it be removed.

Among the notable elements that have decayed beyond salvation has been a masonry abutment on the New York side, Roman said. There has been a shift and rotation of the abutment that will only worsen during the winter’s freeze-thaw cycle, which will promote further cracking, officials said.

“We are concerned that this bridge, in a way, it may be slow and can’t really be seen, but it’s moving, and in short, we don’t like when bridges move uncontrollably or as we design and calculate them,” Roman said.

The removal of the bridge is a necessity as an uncontrolled collapse of the bridge would be a hazard to recreational users on the river. Brozey said explosive charges are one of the means expected to be used to drop the bridge.

Officials emphasized that they did consider other alternatives, including trying to shore up the abutment or dismantling the bridge. A plan outlined last month called for each of the removed components to be inventoried, tagged and stored in a secure location to potentially be used in a future project. However, closer examination revealed that plan to be unfeasible, too dangerous or would pose environmental or other harms to nearby businesses and landowners.

History of repairs

The bridge, which is more than 466 feet long and has one lane, connects the communities of Skinners Falls, N.Y., and Milanville, Pa., over the Delaware.

It is among the oldest known bridges associated with the American Bridge Company, and features a Baltimore truss design, which is known for its short sections of additional bracing in the lower part of the truss to give it extra strength.

Built in 1901-02, the bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also considered a “contributing resource” to the Milanville Historic District and is within the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, which is managed by the National Park Service.

Bridge preservationists have been adamant about saving the original bridge and repeatedly spoken out against any plans to potentially replace it

The bridge has had two major rehabilitations, in 1974-75 and 1986, in addition to undergoing emergency repairs in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016. Because of its deteriorating condition, the bridge has been closed to all traffic — vehicular, pedestrian and bicyclists — since October 2019.

Read more: Residents get the skinny on the Skinners Falls Bridge

For now, there is no pinpointed date for the bridge’s removal. PennDOT is seeking to expedite the selection of a contractor and hopes to complete the demolition by late winter or early spring.

Roman noted that when the bridge was built, it had a life expectancy of 70 years. As for why it had deteriorated now to the point of no return after far surpassing its expected utility, Roman said, “It’s just the nature of life and death of things.”