Councilor Julia Woldorf updated council on the pedestrian bridge project, which she said has now caught the eye of the Bucks County Planning Commission.
Woldorf reported that the county has joined the borough, the township and the Newtown Creek Coalition in studying the feasibility of building a span over the creek between Edgeboro Drive in the borough and Durham Road and Sycamore Street in the township.
The Bucks County Planning Commission is “extremely supportive of this project and they had a lot of good ideas for us,” reported Woldorf.
The first step in the process, she continued, will be to apply for a $250,000 planning grant, which would cover “a considerable amount of work that needs to be done to determine what the feasibility is, how we should go about it and what the costs are going to be.”
The grant would require a 15 percent match, which Woldorf called “a pretty good deal if you get it. That’s what we’re striving for,” she said.
Within the next week or so the steering committee will be meeting with borough and township engineers at the site of the proposed bridge “to get their thoughts regarding what sorts of engineering studies will be required and should be included in the budget for the planning grant,” said Woldorf.
“To make sure this is not a bridge to nowhere on both sides of the creek,” Councilor Robert Swajakos said it will be important to include plans for pedestrian and bicycle access to and from the span.
Woldorf said that will be included in the scope of the project, which will extend to the corner of Sycamore and Durham Roads in the township and Edgeboro Road and Frost Lane in the borough where connections could be made via sidewalks to the trail system at nearby Roberts Ridge Park.
“Once we get the grant then we start the activity of doing the planning,” said Woldorf. “Another big thing is to actually look at the bridge piers that are there and determine how much work will be required to make them useful and are they going to be ultimately useful and how much more do we have to do to our the bridge across them.”
The major cost, she said, will be engineering considerations both in assessing and doing the actual construction of the project.
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What's YOUR Opinion?
There are currently TWO #NewtownPA Creek pedestrian bridges proposed - one at Frost Lane and Edgeboro Road in the Borough to North Sycamore Street in the Township and one at the other end of town connecting the proposed Steeple View development in the Borough to Carl Sedia Park in the Township.
The Newtown BOS already approved apply for a grant for the Frost Lane bridge (read more about that here). The Steeple View bridge is just a concept, but the developer has already asked in confidence for opinions from Newtown BOS members (read more about that here).
In general, how much are you in favor of/opposed to these proposed bridges?
Background: