The Sanatoga Post

The closed Pruss Hill Road bridge, seen Tuesday from its east side

One supporting wall on the northeast side shows a top-to-bottom crack

SANATOGA PA – Never judge a book by its cover, wise librarians say. For that matter, never judge the sturdiness of a highway bridge by what gets seen only from a window as a car whizzes across it at 30 miles an hour.

The concrete bridge that carries picturesque Pruss Hill Road over the Sanatoga Creek, just west of Schaeffer Road in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, at first glance looks to be stout and compact, almost a Rock of Ages among its kind.

Its upper portion, seen most often by the public, shows a few nicks and scratches from a bumper scrape here and a collision there. A top-to-bottom crack in a buttressing wall on the bridge’s northeast side may be, to the untrained eye, its most easily visible flaw.

Otherwise, the roadbed is colored a richly dark, just-paved black. It’s separated from the cool gray of the concrete by a shoulder stripe painted bright white, and as the eye follows Pruss Hill Road west beyond the bridge and up an adjacent hill it curves pleasingly away to the right and out of sight.

Nothing in the scene seems to scream “close this bridge now!,” as engineers from Traffic Planning and Design Inc. urged the township almost three weeks ago.

Rusted and broken reinforcing steel is bent and juts like a spear from beneath the bridge

But the scene is deceptive.

Underneath the bridge, where there is barely enough room for wayward youths to stand erect on smooth creek rocks and spray-paint their initials on its supports, The Post found Tuesday (Oct. 4, 2011) what far-more-skilled TPD representatives surely also discovered: inches-deep gouges in the bridge bed in some places, rusted and broken reinforcing steel in others, and deterioration along most of its length at both sides.

• See a gallery of 15 photos from the bridge on The Post‘s Facebook page, here.

TPD, headquartered in Sanatoga, was hired by the township during August to conduct a study about how the bridge and road, notorious for accidents caused by speeding and careless driving in bad weather, could be made safer. It strongly recommended the bridge’s closure after an inspection, which Lower Pottsgrove police and highway crews put into effect Sept. 16.

Disgruntled owners of nearby homes learned about the closure only when they faced barricades on either side of the bridge, blocking their passage.

Cracks, gouges and rusting steel can be seen along most of the length of the bridge edges

During the next three weeks, township Manager Rodney Hawthorne told the Board of Commissioners Monday (Oct. 3), he and TPD experts intend to decide whether the bridge can be re-opened to vehicles of limited weight, if at all. Over the longer term, though, to accommodate all traffic, everyone officially involved acknowledges the bridge must be either replaced or substantially repaired.

In the best of all scenarios, one commissioner has said, Lower Pottsgrove could hope for the new housing market to bounce back. Then it might convince developers who own land near the 85-year-old bridge, and who have already filed preliminary plans to build homes there, to help foot the bill to fix it. It may take years for that kind of economic rebound, though.

There’s also no guarantee such a strategy will work. Lower Pottsgrove is currently suing the developer of the housing community surrounding Raven’s Claw Golf Club, only a half-mile east of Pruss Hill Pond, for what it alleges is that company’s failure to pay for long-negotiated repairs to the Rupert Road bridge. That’s  in similar straits.

Related (to Pruss Hill Road and its bridge):

• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit
• Bridge Damage Closes Pruss Hill Road ‘Indefinitely’
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• Bridge, Guardrail Study Proposed For Pruss Hill Road
• Stop Sign May Be Answer For Pruss Hill Road Crashes
• Pruss Hill Road Guardrail Now Repaired
• Use Caution Driving Pruss Hill Road
• Car Upended On Pruss Hill Road

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 3):

• The Problems At Pruss Hill Lurk Beneath Its Bridge
• Police Detail At Limerick Hearings Cost $1,468
• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit

SANATOGA PA – Pruss Hill Road, now blocked across Sanatoga Creek west of Schaeffer Road because of a deteriorating bridge there, could be re-opened to traffic if engineers working for Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township determine the bridge can tolerate vehicles weighing 5,000 pounds or less, the Board of Commissioners learned Monday (Oct. 3, 2011).

If a weight limit is imposed – and the township won’t know that possibility until Oct. 24 “at the earliest,” Manager Rodney Hawthorne said – it would allow passage of most passenger cars (estimated to weigh between 2,400 and 4,700 pounds) and a few pick-up trucks (estimated at between 4,500 and 8,500 pounds). It would exclude most specialty trucks and school buses, the weights of which start at about 10,000 pounds.

The bridge currently is barricaded by cones and pile of gravel

Sanatoga-based Traffic Planning and Design Inc. (TPD), which discovered problems with the Pruss Hill Road bridge and recommended its closure 19 days ago, has been asked by Hawthorne to produce and help him analyze reports on whether the bridge can be re-opened on the limited basis. “We’re going to have to study it, and I’ll need to talk with several people,” Hawthorne reported.

The township also has promised to keep area residents better informed on the subject, using its website. Commissioners and Hawthorne were chided Monday by Rivendell Lane resident P.J. McGill for failing to earlier notify the public of the bridge’s closure. As of mid-day Monday, the website noted those affected could find “further updates … posted on (its) page.”

Nearby property owners, particularly those in the Woodgate housing community a half-mile east of the bridge, have complained about both the unexpected and unannounced closure and the inconvenience of its accompanying detour. Several were in the municipal building conference audience Monday night, although only McGill addressed the board.

Pruss Hill Road remains open for local traffic up to barricades on both sides of the almost century-old bridge that fronts the waterfall-like outflow of Pruss Hill Pond into Sanatoga Creek. TPD was hired by commissioners during August to look at ways to make the road and bridge less accident-prone. Its preliminary assessment led to closing the bridge Sept. 16.

Specifics of the bridge’s current condition, which reportedly was “determined to be so deteriorated it is deemed unsafe to remain open until repairs are made,” were not offered during the meeting. There was no discussion among board members about fixing or replacing the bridge, although that may come after TPD issues a full report on its study, for which the township is paying $7,500. There also was no discussion of how, if at all, the vehicle weight limit might be enforced if permitted. That, too, could be announced later.

The biggest problem facing the bridge, as well as guard rails running for about 100 feet along the road’s shoulders from either side, is driver carelessness, Hawthorne repeated. Accidents, caused mostly by speeding or recklessness, occur there quarterly and sometimes more frequently.

Some offenders are caught, and their insurers charged for the damage, Hawthorne said; some aren’t. “If the police catch up with them, we make them pay,” he said. Otherwise, the township gets stuck with the bill.

Related (to Pruss Hill Road and its bridge):

• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit
• Bridge Damage Closes Pruss Hill Road ‘Indefinitely’
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• Bridge, Guardrail Study Proposed For Pruss Hill Road
• Stop Sign May Be Answer For Pruss Hill Road Crashes
• Pruss Hill Road Guardrail Now Repaired
• Use Caution Driving Pruss Hill Road
• Car Upended On Pruss Hill Road

Related (to the Lower Pottsgrove Board of Commissioners’ meeting of Oct. 3):

• Pruss Hill Bridge Might Re-Open With Weight Limit

Cone-like barriers and mounds of gravel are intended to block passage of vehicles on both sides of the Pruss Hill Road bridge in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township

SANATOGA PA – Pruss Hill Road in Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township, which has become a favorite thoroughfare for drivers traveling from the township’s west side to U.S. Route 422 and destinations east, will be indefinitely closed between Schaeffer and North Pleasant View roads, township Roadmaster John Fogel has told the Board of Commissioners.

Although a detour is established and marked with small orange signs, the open-ended nature of Pruss Hill Road’s future is causing concerns among both longer-distance motorists and residents of homes along the township’s eastern border with Limerick, particularly inside the Woodgate housing community.

A recent engineering study conducted on the bridge that crosses Sanatoga Creek in front of the Pruss Hill Pond dam has determined it to be structurally unsound. Local motorists can travel most of the road’s length up to closure points on either side of the bridge, but at those points cone-like barriers and mounds of gravel piled in the roadway are intended to block passage.

Repairs of guard rail damage along the Pruss Hill roadside, caused by motorists' accidents there, have been expensive for the township

Neighbors who live closest to the choke points say they’ve deterred most traffic, but haven’t stopped all of it. “It’s been more quiet, that’s for sure,” one man who asked not to be named said Friday (Sept. 30, 2011). “Most people have stopped coming by. But you can see where a couple just plowed right through,” he said, pointing to several sets of tire tracks that go up and over the gravel mounds.

The bridge was officially closed two weeks ago, on Sept. 16, when highway department crew members erected large “road closed” signs. Commissioners, Pottsgrove School District administrators, fire chiefs at the Sanatoga, Ringing Hill, and Pottstown fire companies, and even Montgomery County officials reportedly were notified of the situation.

Not affected residents, Woodgate home owner P.J. McGill claims.

“I see no mention on the (township) website about why and for how long Pruss Hill Road will be closed,” McGill, of Rivendell Lane, complained Friday to Manager Rodney Hawthorne in an e-mail that was copied to The Post. “Possibly a notice from the township to those who use Pruss Hill regularly would have been nice,” he wrote.

As of Friday at 4 p.m., there was no alert regarding the closure posted on the website’s home page, where the township’s most urgent notices are usually placed.

Hawthorne and some commissioners were unavailable for much of Friday as they attended the fall conference of the county Association of Township Officials, for which Lower Pottsgrove served as host.

Keeping up with repairs to winding and hilly Pruss Hill Road has been an expensive endeavor for the township in recent months.

• Commissioners agreed in August (2011) to pay $7,500 for Sanatoga-based Traffic Planning and Design Inc. to determine how to make the bridge and roadway more accident-free;
• That cost was prompted by the township’s nearly quarterly repairs or replacements of roadside guard rails severely damaged by crashes there; and
• In June (2011), the township spent a portion of its annual road resurfacing funds to repave a majority of the two-lane highway.

Extensive flooding of Sanatoga Creek during an exceedingly rainy August and September, punctuated by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, also seemed to create problems for the bridge and roadway, nearby property owners said.

A few drivers have attempted to go around barriers and over the gravel just to save themselves time. Tire marks on the mounds demonstrate their attempts, local residents claim

Related (to Pruss Hill Road and its bridge):

• Bridge Damage Closes Pruss Hill Road ‘Indefinitely’
• Commissioners OK Pruss Hill Road Accidents Study
• Bridge, Guardrail Study Proposed For Pruss Hill Road
• Stop Sign May Be Answer For Pruss Hill Road Crashes
• Pruss Hill Road Guardrail Now Repaired
• Use Caution Driving Pruss Hill Road
• Car Upended On Pruss Hill Road