Trout were plentiful recently in the clear water of Tulpehocken Creek at Jackson Township’s Reilly Road Bridge where fishing is prohibited.
“We’re not fishing — we’re inspecting the bridge,” Shawn Layton was quick to tell curious passersby of why he and Eric Weaver were in the creek wearing waders.
Layton and Weaver are with Wilson Consulting Group, a civil engineering firm in Mechanicsburg, that is contracted to inspect the 14 bridges that are owned by the county and are at least 20 feet long. PennDOT requires bridges be inspected every two years unless they are posted with weight limits.
The Reilly bridge is posted — weight limit is four tons — so Layton and Weaver were conducting the required annual inspection.
“This is about public safety,” said Layton, a professional engineer, certified bridge safety inspector and Wilson’s bridge inspection manager.
“We look at the bridge’s overall condition, take measurements, compare those with findings from previous years’ inspections and make recommendations for repairs and maintenance.”
All of that is collected into a report submitted to PennDOT for review and approval.
Spanning 39 feet, the Reilly Road Bridge is a one-lane stone masonry bridge with two arch rings. When it was built is unknown although PennDOT lists the year as 1900, the default year if no documentation exists.
Part of the inspection involves photographing the bridge’s structural elements. By duplicating the same perspective as photos from the 2023 inspection, Weaver and Layton can begin to identify what, if any, changes have occurred in the last year.
Once in the creek, Layton and Weaver continued the inspection, examining the arch rings and barrels or areas under the bridge for missing stones, cracks, fractures and deterioration. They particularly studied the bridge’s exterior stone walls or spandrel walls and measured areas where the walls were bulging or the stone was pushed out.
They also measured stream depth under the bridge as well as upstream and downstream to determine if any erosion had occurred in and around the bridge’s pier — all while footlong and longer trout from nearby Limestone Springs Fishing Preserve swam around and into them.
“Better than a snapping turtle,” quipped Layton, who had once hightailed it out of a stream when sighting a snapper.
Little is known about the bridge’s history and its apparent namesake, Reilly. But several years ago, when the bridge was closed to traffic for safety reasons, local residents rallied successfully to have the historical structure repaired.
“The bridge recently underwent a number of significant repairs to repoint stone walls and replace and repair the cap stones on the walls of the bridge to keep out infiltration of water into the structure,” wrote Jon Fitzkee, senior transportation planner for the Lebanon County Planning Department, in an email.
Still PennDOT’s bridge database describes the condition of the Reilly bridge as “poor” primarily because of deterioration of the spandrel walls.
“‘Poor’ does not mean it is unsafe – PennDOT ranks bridges from 0-9, with 9 being brand new and 0 washed downstream,” Layton said. “This bridge is still safe to drive over. We’re trying to prevent the bridge from getting worse by posting weight limits to stop heavy vehicles from driving over and causing more damage.”
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