GLEN SPEY, NY — Pennsylvania and New York are going to spend $17.5 million to replace a historic one-lane bridge that many people didn’t want replaced. It will serve about 30 families, many of whom are part-time residents, and disrupt traffic on Route 97 for portions of four years.

Lumberland Supervisor Nadia Rajsz on January 14 reported the news in a PennDOT update on their project to replace the 1904 Pond Eddy Bridge.

According to PennDOT, the new bridge will be a two-span truss, like the existing bridge, but will include a concrete road deck, sidewalk, and a 40-ton carrying capacity.

Some were skeptical about why a bridge with so little traffic, serving only the narrow Rosa Road, would need a bridge with tractor-trailer weight capacity, and questioned whether the bridge was being constructed in preparation for future energy exploration.

That question is likely to arise again when PennDOT officials come to Lumberland and Shohola, PA for public information meetings this summer, on a date(s) yet to be determined.

The old bridge will remain in service during three construction seasons, as the new one goes up some 55 feet upstream.

The work is to begin in New York, in the summer of 2016, with the preparation of an access road and contractors’ staging area on nearby county property. Rajsz seemed to visualize the tight quarters as she read the description. “[The shore is] narrow in Pond Eddy. It isn’t like Barryville,” she said.

The 2016 work includes laying rock for a causeway to the center of the river and constructing a new center pier and New York abutment.

The spring of 2017 is to see construction of the New York side truss and the beginning of relocating material to the PA side and building a ramp from the new bridge to a causeway.

Early in 2018, contractors will build an access road up to Rosa Road, where a new staging area will be located. Later in the spring, they will build a PA abutment and truss.

The plan calls for demolition of the old bridge in 2019.

Traffic interruptions, with flaggers on hand, are scheduled only for one or two weeks throughout the project work.

An informational website, not yet available, will update the ongoing project.

In other business, the board approved appropriation of $407,000 for 2015 highway department road work including paving projects on the Van Tuyl, Bohan Lesky, and Leers roads, plus various smaller projects on 59.2 miles of additional town roads.

They also designated Rajsz to oversee a $30,000 engineering grant from the New York State Environmental Facilities Corp., and approved a local $30,000 match to the state grant, which together will fund a town-wide sewer feasibility study.

The board also approved the appropriation of $750 to fund a town hall energy audit to be conducted by Gordon Smith.