A handful of residents raised concerns over a closed county bridge in the Penn Forest Township area and how the closure is affecting things, including the safety of children trying to get to a school bus stop.

On Thursday, several residents who live along Stoney Creek Road in Jim Thorpe approached the Carbon County board of commissioners to say the signs announcing the closure don’t state the bridge is closed, constantly fall over and are ignored by motorists, causing problems when the driver finds themselves at concrete barriers of the bridge.

County bridge 11 has been closed to motor vehicle traffic since the spring of 2012, when it was determined to be in severe deterioration.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein read a report from Michael Tirpak of Carbon Engineering regarding the bridge’s current status, which includes several areas where the spandrel wall and ring stones are separating from the stone arch, and the wing walls are “severely out of plumb.”

Because of these serious issues, Tirpak said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation required the bridge to be closed to traffic, both motor vehicle and pedestrian, for fear of collapse.

But residents said people are not heeding the closure signs.

They also asked the board if at least pedestrians can walk the bridge. If not, residents asked if the bridge be removed and replaced with just a pedestrian bridge.

Bus stop issue

One concerned resident, Barbara Lenches, who has school-aged children, has a significant issue because Jim Thorpe Area School District’s bus stop for her child is on the other side of that bridge. She says the district said it would not change it either.

Because of this, her daughter has had to climb over the barriers to cross the bridge to get to the bus stop and has recently fallen over the barrier in the process, hurting herself pretty badly.

“I’ve been dealing with the school district since my kids were in first grade,” Lenches said, noting that she moved into her current home in 2016. “It has been going on since then.”

She said the school district told her it was a county and township problem because of the bridge instead of moving the school bus stop.

Lenches added that she asked if the bus can come down her road, pick up the children and then turn around in the parking lot near the home, which is owned by her landlord, or if a van can be utilized instead. Again, she said she was told no.

This year is even more complicated for Lenches due to another child starting school, and she needs to be at two separate bus stops at the same time.

“I’m not going to be able to do it,” she said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said the county has reached out to John Rushefski, superintendent of Jim Thorpe Area School District, regarding the matter and was told the district was looking into it.

“I don’t know what the resolution is, but we see it as a concern, a liability on everyone’s part that children are basically having to run an obstacle course to get to the school bus,” Lukasevich said. “It’s very unsafe.”

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said that the county had also looked to see if it could be used for just pedestrian traffic, but “the bridge is just too dangerous.”

Other residents speak out

Ralph Clark, who lives along Stoney Creek Road, said that people walk across the bridge all the time but the barriers are creating more of a hazard for the people using the bridge. He asked if the barriers could be shifted to allow people to cross it.

“That’s what we need,” he said. “… I think we’re kind of blowing up a situation here that doesn’t make sense.”

Another resident suggested just taking the bridge down if it is that dangerous for even pedestrians to cross safely because it then would create a bigger issues for residents if it collapsed on their properties.

Nothstein said the county will revisit the issue and speak with the engineer and again with the school district to see if the busing issue can be resolved.

The commissioners said that even if the county took the bridge down and created a pedestrian bridge, it wouldn’t happen overnight due to all the requirements with the state, as well as funding.