Council Pres. on High Street Bridge: ‘We’ve Done Everything We Can Do’

During a discussion about the closed High Street Bridge Monday night, Hellertown Borough Council president Tom Rieger expressed some concern over the lack of progress on the construction of a new bridge.

Many borough residents continue to ask about the status of the High Street Bridge, which connects the northwestern corner of the borough with a residential neighborhood in South Bethlehem.

The bridge’s east end is on the Hellertown border with Bethlehem. The structure itself is entirely within Bethlehem city limits, which means the replacement project is Bethlehem’s responsibility.

Following negotiations with Norfolk-Southern Railroad–which owns the right-of-way beneath the bridge–city officials announced that a new bridge connecting W. High Street in Hellertown with Ravena Street in Bethlehem would be built.

The original timetable tentatively called for construction of that bridge to begin over the summer.

An updated timetable has not been made available, either to Saucon Source–which recently requested information about it from the city’s engineering department–or borough officials.

“We’ve done everything we can do” to move the project forward other than try to use eminent domain to take over the land around the bridge, Rieger said. “I can say we’ve been very proactive on our bridges… Unfortunately, that bridge is not under our control.”

Rieger asked borough manager Cathy Hartranft to follow up with city officials in order to find out what the current status of the project is.

When Saucon Source publisher Josh Popichak contacted the city’s engineering department earlier this fall he was told the engineer who was working on the High Street Bridge replacement project is no longer employed by the city.

Popichak asked to be referred to the engineer who had taken over the project.

As of the date of this article’s publication, no one has been in contact with Saucon Source.

The High Street Bridge–a one-lane timber span built in 1910–has been closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic since June 2011.

It closed several months after the nearby Seidersville Road Bridge across the Saucon Creek was also closed due to structural deficiencies.

The Seidersville Road bridge–which was once a link in an east-west alternate route through Hellertown and Lower Saucon Township–is owned by Northampton County.

County officials have said they do not plan to repair or replace it.