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Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township will remain closed indefinitely, according to township officials.
That announcement was made Monday at a meeting of township supervisors, who announced that the bridge failed a required safety inspection prior to being given the green light to reopen.
“I guess all of you have heard by now that the bridge is not gonna be opening right away,” said chairman Clyde Meyer. “The work that was done, the final inspection was all OK, but there are sidewalks on the side and they were rough and rebar sticking out.”
That exposed rebar was problematic.
Up until the failed inspection, the bridge had been expected to be reopened by the end of the week.
Read More:
- Clear Spring Road in N. Annville Twp. closed indefinitely due to bridge defects
- Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township slated to reopen in 2026
“When they reached the road, it’s now about the same level as those sidewalks. And the sidewalk was not built as strong as what the rest of the bridge was, and they don’t want any traffic on there,” Meyer added.
When a resident asked if that meant it would be another year before it reopens, Meyer said he wasn’t going to make a prediction.
Another asked who was going to pay for repairs, with the answer being probably Norfolk Southern since the rebar is part of the bridge and the railroad company owns the structure. North Annville Township is responsible for paving the roadway, which connects U.S. Route 422 in the south to State Route 934 in the north.
While it is unknown when the bridge may reopen, some conditions are known.
“So Norfolk Southern has to come up with a plan of action and get it approved by PennDOT, so that’s where it’s at right now,” supervisor Adam Wolfe said.
“There was a meeting on site today. Everybody’s looking at it, including Norfolk Southern. So that moved the ball forward. At least the meeting wasn’t scheduled two weeks from now,” added Aaron Miller.
Supervisors don’t know when the PUC will give final approval on the bridge reopening since the commission controls railroads in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, local farmer Zachary Alger wrote to LebTown after the meeting to say he is “certainly unhappy” about this latest development.
“It’s crippling to me and neighboring farmers trying to haul grain or move equipment and essentially forces me to take everything either through Annville where much of it barely fits or across Palmyra to Bellgrove road where there’s poor visibility and it’s dangerous,” Alger wrote. “I know the township has to coordinate this project with Norfolk-Southern as well as PENNDOT so it has to be cumbersome, but nonetheless the township has oversight of it and I’m more than a little skeptical that no one thought to question this issue of the sidewalk until now when the project is otherwise completed.”
The road was closed in May 2025 due to structural defects on the west side of the bridge that were discovered during a biennial inspection on April 28, 2025, by Lebanon County’s engineering firm, Wilson Consulting Group. The county offers their engineering firm to do bridge inspections as a service to all local municipalities.
“Township residents like myself that have to use Clear Spring road everyday have been pretty patient and understanding but for me at least that patience is wearing thin. I would have appreciated someone firmly shepherding this project to completion but instead I’m hearing a lot of buck-passing,” Alger wrote. “The township supervisors may not have been responsible for this new delay but I lament their willingness to accept the unacceptable, because having a busy road like this closed for possibly several more months over a sidewalk no one uses plainly is unacceptable.”
Wolfe told LebTown after the meeting that at issue is the possibility of vehicles, especially large trucks, passing each other simultaneously on the bridge, puncturing their tires on the rebar.
Additionally, as noted by Meyer during the meeting, the bridge’s substructure underneath the sidewalks in its current form is unsafe to bear the weight of a vehicle.
“We don’t want vehicles to get over there and put their weight on this portion of the bridge,” Wolfe said after the meeting.
Wolfe also told LebTown that a few cosmetic items were all that had to be completed, and that the plan was to reopen the bridge to traffic on Thursday, June 11 – until the defects were discovered during an inspection by Wilson officials, who serve as agents for PennDOT. Wolfe noted the state transportation agency has final say on when bridges across the commonwealth are opened or closed.
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