In October, demolition began on the Lehigh Valley bridge over the Susquehanna River in Coxton, PA. This long abandoned bridge has been the subject of much local debate about the precarious state of its piers and fears it would fall into the river, and the lack of action by its owner, a local tow truck operator now in prison on fraud charges. According to the article it would take about a month to dismantle so I expect it is gone by now.

http://wnep.com/2017/10/10/old-railroad-bridge-being-demolished/

The bridge is (was) immediately adjacent to the remains of the Coxton/Duryea roundhouse and coal tower which are similarly in very poor condition.

At $800,000 of taxpayer money to remove the bridge, it seems as though the piers could have been repaired for much less and the structure made an extension to the Back Mountain Rail Trail currently ending in Luzerne, PA, just 8 miles down the same Lehigh Valley line that begun at the Coxton bridge. But, I supposed that would require too much vision for the future.

As someone who saw the engineering to repair a similarly collapsed pier on a Susquehanna River railroad bridge in his hometown without having to realign tilted trusses, I will gladly take a bet that you're wrong about the potential cost. Further, remember that you're also having to pay to make the bridge "idiot-proof" against jumpers, put down a new deck, etc. if you put in a trail.

I'm not fond of the idea of taking out the bridge either, but given that area's notorious history with floods, I kind of have to make peace with "we can't save 'em all."

"At $800,000 of taxpayer money to remove the bridge"

Can't wait to find out what friend of what politician got that bid.

Remember, this is the area that gave us corrupt judges (Lokuta, Conahan and Ciavarella), corrupt legislators (Musto, Mellow, who inexplicably just got back his TWO HUNDRED FORTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR PENSION) and corrupt County Commissioners (Greg "the barge" Skrepenak. Munchak and Cordaro) and let's not forget convicted former state AG Kathleen Kane.

You might think the NEP in WNEP is "NorthEastern Pennsylvania".

I think WNEP stands for We'll Never Ever Prosper.

Supe,

How could you forget U.S. Representative Daniel J. Flood? Check out his fingerprints all over Interstate 81, among others.

G.W.

.......*cough* Rep. Joseph Mcdade, champion of Steamtown *coughcough*.....

I can see the $800,000 price as reasonable. The work included building a causeway to the structure, removal of the bridge and I believe full removal of the bridge piers.

Railroad ties also need to be disposed of properly.

I believe the former Coxton yard is totally off limits to the public, at least it used to be.

Rebuilding it as part of a trail system would have been a multi million dollar endeavor.

Also seems to be another railroad bridge about a half mile south that also sits unused or rarely used. It goes between Upper Pittston and West Pittston.

Hello,

In listening to the report, they discussed salvage all the steel.....obviously......consider the value of the cut stone on the piers (assuming they are stone)....the shear effort to cut them into blocks for structural use and to set them is staggering, to me as significant as the steel work.....will likely go to fill or erosion control...

Today such use of materials and labor would obvious be considered wasteful and insane.

Regards,

Randy

Well, it's been a long time since we made jokes about Dan being hospitalized for an apparent case of murine rhinoimpaction.

However, the omission is inexcusable, so thanks.