SHOHOLA, PA — Shohola Township’s meeting room was full when the final plans for the new Pond Eddy Bridge were revealed by the design team on January 21.

Paul D’Angelo, consulting biologist from Skelly and Loy in Harrisburg, and John A. Rautzahn, Vice President of SAI Consulting Engineers of Lemoyne, PA both spoke, explaining the current plans and timeline, and invited questions before and after the presentation. Their exhibits included a model of the new bridge, which is going to closely resemble the present one, maps and photos. The bridge will be built about 65 feet upstream from the old one.

Starting in summer of 2016, after bidding by construction firms in spring, a rock causeway will be built from the New York side to half-way across the Delaware River. That will keep the water flowing both for the fish and for recreational use of the river. Once that half has been completed, the same process will be repeated from the PA side.

Although the project originally drew a lot of fire both from residents and environmental groups, no protestors were seen at the informative meeting. However, some raised questions about the bridge’s environmental impact and rights-of-way.

As part of the review and permitting, biologists found freshwater mussels that have to be moved, although they’re not an endangered species. Some concerns over the shad population in the river have been raised, but no probable significant impact from the construction has been demonstrated yet.

The section of the river on which construction will be taking place is on the route of the historic D & H canal. No artifacts have been found so far, but a resident archeologist will be on site throughout construction to document and inform.

The cost estimate of the new bridge is $13.3 million, shared between Pennsylvania and New York. The cost was brought down by $3 million with a new design. The new bridge will have the old two-truss and one-lane structure. The color will be taupe, and the stone pier and abutments will be made to resemble local bluestone.

The project went through several phases of consultation and permitting. A design committee was formed, meeting several times, and New York Department of Environmental Protection and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Conservation worked together on the final design. Several regulatory agencies had to give approvals, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Parks Service, the Delaware River Basin Commission, PA Fish and Boat Commission, Shohola and Lumberland Townships and the Upper Delaware Council. The final approvals from local, state, and federal agencies were received in the fall of 2015, with a special use permit granted for three years.

“There was a lot of concern regarding the impact of the bridge,” D’Angelo acknowledged. “How are you going to build it 500 feet across? How would you access, build, and maintain, keeping the natural resource aspect, and resident and boater access?”

He continued, “Plus the engineering exercise. We’re out to build a bridge over the river, we’re not going to build a dam across all of it; we need to maintain the flow of the river for safety and for fish and wildlife.”

Rautzahn expanded on the actual engineering. “It will be single lane, a bit wider than the existing one, safer; there will be a walkway across the bridge. The general layout looks very similar to the present one.”

Traffic control is one of the big issues, because there are residents on the Pennsylvania side whose only access is through the bridge. “The access will be from Route 97 on NY side, with a causeway to safely keep the channel open on PA side, requiring a lot of coordination,” Rautzahn explained.

“The first year of construction will extend through most of 2017,” he said. “There will be a navigation plan, and signs up and down stream, to stay to the right. There won’t be any work on the PA side during that time. The existing bridge will stay open.”

At the end of 2017, the work will switch to PA side, mirroring the New York side.

“How do we get to the PA side? It’s landlocked. There are issues going through roads, railroad, and contractual issues to access, but we worked this up with the park service. It’s going to be a continuous operation, once you start to take rock piles there,” Rautzahn said.

D’Angelo said the project has all the necessary permits. “Mussel relocation with the disturbance going on—we have to restore and stabilize it during and after construction, along the banks. There will be orange fencing. We’ll chop everything down on the banks in the areas we are going to serve, and we’ll do plantings in a stabilization effort. We have to make sure it’s secure and stable.”

The new bridge will not be connected to High Road in Pond Eddy, so an accident similar to one last year when a truck lost its brakes and crashed across the bridge will not be possible. Once the new bridge is up, the old one will be taken down.

Problems with storage of equipment are possible on the Pennsylvania side.

“We have not much room there. Once they are there, landlocked in the second stage, they have to truck everything over the old bridge. The area is limited, there’s a railroad, rock. We squeezed it as much as we could,” Rautzahn said.

He concluded “The environmental documentation that was approved—a lot of study went into that, not just cost. It’s about the safety of the new bridge.”