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Community Corner

Bridge Inspections Haven't Found Quake Damage

It appears that tremors didn't endanger spans in Lehigh County, officials say.

The earthquake that shook the East Coast appears to have spared bridges in Lehigh County but engineers are checking to make sure, county officials said.

“We don’t believe we have any problems, nonetheless we’re taking precautions and checking,” said Glenn Solt, the county’s director of general services. He said the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation handles inspections for the 47 bridges owned by the county and will be looking for any new cracks or signs of destabilization from the quake that hit last week.

The tremors were initially cause for concern in Berks County where cracks on a bridge abutment on the Penn Street Bridge in Reading led officials to close that span briefly.  Sean Brown, a PennDOT District 5 spokesman, said it was reopened after officials confirmed the problem was a pre-existing condition not caused by the quake.

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PennDOT also closed a sidewalk on the New Street (Philip J. Fahy Memorial) Bridge over the Lehigh River Saturday when a routine inspection showed deterioration to parts of the steel supporting the sidewalk. The bridge damage was unrelated to Tuesday’s earthquake, the agency said. 

Brown said his agency had crews out inspecting bridges for earthquake damage and found nothing that would lead them to close a span in Lehigh County.

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That’s a relief because Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of , according to a report released last March by the national advocacy group Transportation for America. The state has 5,906 structurally deficient bridges or 26.5 percent of its 22,271 spans. The state with the next highest number – Oklahoma -- has about 700 fewer problem bridges.

Lehigh County is slated to replace the Lehigh Street Bridge between Whitehall and North Catasauqua next year, according to Solt. Currently, the bridge is weight restricted. The Coplay-Northampton Bridge over the Lehigh River is to be replaced in 2014-2015, he said.

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