About 13 months after it was closed due to structural defects, the railroad bridge over Clear Spring Road in North Annville reopened to traffic on Thursday, June 11.
North Annville Township supervisor Adam Wolfe contacted LebTown Thursday morning to announce “the wheels were in motion” for the bridge to reopen by afternoon.
“Norfolk Southern’s contractor completed the required repairs to the sidewalk yesterday and an onsite inspection this morning determined that the sidewalk has been satisfactorily repaired to allow for the road to reopen, and the road will be open this afternoon after the road close signs are all taken down,” Wolfe said during a telephone interview.
North Annville Township is responsible for maintaining the road surface, while Norfolk Southern is in charge of the bridge’s superstructure and substructure. The bridge, 71 feet long and 31 feet wide, was built in 1937.
The contractor was still working Thursday morning and was set to complete a few minor details by noon, at which time the various detour and road closed signs were set to be removed, according to Wolfe.
The removal process was expected to take an hour or two since signage was placed along both U.S. Route 422 and state Route 934 before their intersections with Clear Spring Road and along the roadway itself with connecting roads such as Shanamantown Road.
Read More: (Apr. 2026) Tentative reopening of Clear Spring Road in North Annville Township announced
The sudden announcement of the bridge reopening Thursday comes as somewhat of a surprise since the structure failed an inspection late last week because of exposed rebar along the sidewalk, according to township officials. Township officials announced at their monthly meeting on Monday, June 8, that they were uncertain about when it would reopen since additional work was required.
Wolfe noted it was a team effort to make the final repairs quickly. He said they had no interaction with other entities tied to the project on Tuesday, but action started to happen on Wednesday.
“We hadn’t heard anything from the contractor that was hired by Norfolk Southern Railroad and so we contacted Rep. Russ Diamond’s office to emphasize that getting this bridge reopened to traffic is of the utmost importance to the township and the residents and the motoring public,” Wolfe said. “And the representative in Diamond’s office did then reach out to the Norfolk Southern contacts, and I think also at the same time the contractor was in the process of already making the required repairs to the sidewalk. So everything kind of fell into place yesterday (Wednesday).”
All three township supervisors, and Norfolk Southern and PennDOT officials were on location Monday prior to the board meeting for a site visit.
“What they (the contractor) did was they established a required curb reveal in order to create a physical barrier between the travel lane and the sidewalk to keep vehicles in the travel lane as they go across the bridge,” Wolfe said. “They patched the sidewalk to the extent that it’s established the required curb reveal to meet PennDOT’s requirements for keeping the vehicles in the travel lane. So there’s a curb lip that you would have to jump over to get up on the sidewalk if you were traveling in your car.”
Wolfe said that the area of the bridge underneath the sidewalk does not require reinforcement as cars should not be traveling on it.
The bridge had originally been slated to reopen by late May, and its opening this week appeared uncertain as of Monday.
“The township is very pleased that the repairs have been completed allowing the bridge and the roadway to reopen,” said Wolfe.
The 2-mile stretch of Clear Spring Road is a major connector between U.S. Route 422 in the south to state Route 934 in the north. The road was closed to traffic in May 2025 after structural defects in the bridge were found during a biennial inspection.
Following its closure, local residents expressed concerns at numerous township meetings about how long it might take to reopen the bridge, since it was widely reported that a railroad bridge in Dauphin County had been closed for several years.
Wolfe told LebTown today the plan was always to reopen this bridge ASAP.
“Norfolk Southern did tell the township early on that they were moving at warp speed to get this project completed so the road could reopen,” Wolfe said. “And the township along with Rep. Russ Diamond’s office had met with Norfolk Southern and had very productive discussions on the need for this to happen in a timely fashion so that the road could reopen and serve its purpose of being a primary transportation thruway for the local motorists to use.”
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
Hill Church Road & Thompson Avenue project
LebTown asked Wolfe if the reopening of Clear Spring Road might lead to PennDOT moving up planned repairs at nearby Hill Church Road and Thompson Avenue. LebTown had been told by PennDOT officials that scheduled repairs at that dangerous intersection were being delayed because Clear Spring Road was closed.
As recently reported by LebTown, PennDOT plans to open the bid window for that particular project in October.
“That’s a conversation that I’ll have with PennDOT and then that will ultimately be up to them to decide if they would like to move up the timetable for bidding the Hill Church and Thompson project or if they decide to stick with their original timetable, but that will be their decision to make,” Wolfe said.
Read More: (May 2026) N. Annville Twp. supervisors request change to intersection safety plan
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