No quick fix in sight for 114-year-old bridge in South Buffalo

Every other month for the past 10 years or so, Phillip Tompkins has complained to the South Buffalo supervisors about what he says is a rickety bridge on Clinton Road.

He worries that emergency vehicles could miss the posted 10-ton weight limit and cause the span to buckle, or that a school bus might hit a patch of ice and crash through the bridge’s wooden railing.

That railing isn’t the the only wooden fixture on the bridge.

Virtually the whole thing is wooden, right down to the support beams.

Tompkins says that’s a concern for him and many of the other 100 or so families who rely on the bridge to access their Clinton neighborhood homes.

It’s especially worrisome, he says, when the only other road into his neighborhood, White Rock Road, is flooded, as is often the case during heavy rains.

Emergency responders are often forced to take White Rock Road when responding to calls in Clinton, delaying their arrival by about 15 minutes, according to Zach Wood, South Buffalo Volunteer Fire Department chief.

Each of the department’s trucks weigh around 20 tons when stocked with water. If the bridge was the only way into the neighborhood, Wood would have to call in a mini-pumper from another company, delaying help by at least five minutes.

“We avoid the bridge as much as we can, even with the little trucks,” Wood said.

There’s little the township can do, other than paving the 119-foot span’s deck.

The Pennsylvania Utility Commission ruled about 15 years ago that Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad, which has a rail line under the bridge, owns the 114-year-old structure.

“We just want the railroad to either turn the bridge over to somebody so somebody can take care of it, or the railroad to replace the bridge,” Tompkins said. “It’s just like the railroad isn’t doing anything, isn’t listening.”

PennDOT rates the condition of the bridge’s deck and superstructure as “poor.”

The substructure has been graded as “serious,” reflecting significant decay of primary structural components.

Tompkins crosses the bridge daily, he said, and has seen it continue to deteriorate without much intervention from the railroad.

Buffalo & Pittsburgh spokesperson Tom Ciuba said the railroad performs annual inspections and completes maintenance as needed. He said the railroad replaced portions of the span last year.

Ciuba asserted that the bridge is “structurally sound,” adding that community members “sometimes mistakenly equate bridge or trestle aesthetics with structural integrity.”

Buffalo & Pittsburgh has held off-and-on talks with Armstrong County to transfer ownership, according to Ciuba.

Armstrong County Commissioner Anthony Shea isn’t sure that would be a good deal for the county.

“That’s a double-edged sword,” Shea said. “I’d only want to take the bridge if we had the money to pay for it.”

Armstrong County Commissioners Pat Fabian and John Strate did not respond to requests for comment.

In the meantime, South Buffalo has done what it can to maintain the bridge, but new asphalt “just keeps going through” gaps in the structure, said Supervisor Joseph Charlton.

Charlton added that township engineers drafted plans to replace or repair the bridge but can’t act on them.

A recently approved project to relocate White Rock Road to higher ground could make a temporary or permanent closure of the bridge viable. Tompkins said he’s been told by township officials that the current road will remain open while a parallel one is constructed.

Until something is done, Tompkins and his neighbors will keep a nervous watch over the bridge.

“Our next step is to reach out to the railroad ourselves, because we don’t know what else to do,” Tompkins said. “It’s scary.”