Bucks County covered bridges to undergo repairs

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. - Drivers in Bucks County will soon see detour signs around more than half a dozen historic covered bridges. It's part of the county's first-ever comprehensive covered bridge repair project.

New Britain Township’s Pine Valley covered bridge opened to horse and buggy traffic nearly 20 years before the first shots were fired in the Civil War.  Now, Pine Valley, which is one of seven Bucks County-owned bridges still in operation, handles 1,000 motor vehicles a day passing over its wooden deck across the Pine Run Creek. 

Bucks County's covered bridges are in need of repairs such as structural work, a paint job, re-decking and new roofs. Some are damaged by daily-use while others were damaged by vandals. 

Bucks County's Director of Operations Kevin Spencer showed FOX 29's Bruce Gordon a map of the bridges to be repaired as part of a $2.5 million project set to begin later this month.  The money comes from a five-dollar fee racked onto the cost of annual vehicle registrations in Bucks. He says there’s lots of damage to repair.

“A lot of vehicles that travel through these bridges that are too big or too tall and they don’t pay attention to the warning signs on the bridges relative to height we have trucks hit them inside," he explained.

The repair work will require road closures and detours over the next several months. When the work is complete, a part of Bucks county’s history will be preserved for future generations.