A nearly two-year project to replace Ebling Memorial Bridge, which carries Spring Valley Road over Bernhart Creek in Muhlenberg Township, has been completed.
Spring Valley Road officially reopened to the public Nov. 11.
Berks County awarded a $3.77 million contract a few years ago to Kinsley Construction LLC of York to replace the entire 65-year-old county-owned span except for the abutments, said Alan D. Piper, county transportation planner.
Work got underway in spring 2023 but was slowed by some complications in relocating utilities that run under the bridge deck.
Piper is part of a team assembled by the county several years ago to address maintenance of county-owned spans.
The Ebling span was one of about two dozen county-owned bridges that was identified as needing repair or replacement.
A number of these projects have moved forward thanks to the extra funds generated by the $5 fee that was tacked onto vehicle registrations in the county about five years ago.
Piper said the Ebling project was partially funded by registration fee proceeds. The rest came from funds available to the county through PennDOT.
With the completion of the project, he said, the county is proceeding to transfer ownership to Muhlenberg Township.
In cases where bridges are entirely within one municipality, county officials are encouraging turning over ownership to the municipality.
As an incentive for taking back the bridge and maintenance responsibility, the county used its available funding to pay for relocation of a 24-inch water main that ran under Spring Valley Road through the span. It was a project the township intended to do but wasn’t initially covered in the bridge construction contract.
A natural gas main was also relocated.
The project required a lot of coordination between county engineers and other entities, including the township, the Muhlenberg Township Municipal Authority and nearby property owners, Piper said.
The end result, he said, is an almost entirely new bridge that meets today’s design standards without utilities weaved through it.
Source: Berkshire mont
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