A bridge to somewhere new

DENNISON TWP. – A 71-foot section of an old pedestrian bridge that once spanned Interstate 81 near Avoca was moved from its storage place in Hunlock Township on Monday and installed over an old railroad bed in Dennison Township on Tuesday.

The bridge relocation marks the start of the Black Diamond Trail, which is being developed by the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.

The 16-mile trail, when fully constructed, will connect White Haven with the Mountain Top area.

It will be one of the final links to connect the 165-mile Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor from Bristol in Bucks County to the Wilkes-Barre series of trails with a connection to the Susquehanna Greenways.

The bridge arrived by wide-load tractor trailer at a temporary storage area along Middleburg Road, just north of White Haven, early Monday afternoon.

Crews began working at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday to prepare the bridge for placement on the reconstructed remains of a stone foundation that formerly was used by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to cross over a Central of New Jersey Railroad line.

About four hours later, a crane moved the approximately 32-ton metal structure into place within a matter a minutes.

“It went almost flawless. There was some minor grinding needed to get it to fit, but nothing unexpected,” said H. Scott Everett, stewardship and trail manager for the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor.

Installation of the bridge will immediately add another eight miles to the trail from White Haven and the Lehigh Gorge State Park north to state game lands just below Glen Summit, Everett said.

The trail follows the line that the Lehigh Valley Railroad abandoned in the 1970s.

Funding for the project came from federal highway dollars secured through the federal Transportation Enhancement Act, Everett said.

The legislation provided $680,000 in funding for the bridge rehabilitation, movement and placement as well as a streetscape project in White Haven. Everett didn’t have available costs for each part of the project.

Everett said the pedestrian bridge was removed from the interstate in 2000, broken into three pieces and stored in Hunlock Township.

“We’re trying to use one (of the remaining two sections) on another trail project in Luzerne. The other one is up for grabs. It’s extremely expensive to refurbish. Lead paint had to be remediated. This was the first project for which funding became available,” Everett said.

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Former I-81 pedestrian span now part of trail from White Haven to Mountain Top.

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