L Mt Bethel Slams GPA Interference in Scenic Byway

Yesterday, Northampton County's General Purpose Authority (GPA) met after skipping its May 1 meeting. Perhaps it should have met in May because the meeting lasted four hours and included a "brief" executive session that went for over an hour. It included a number of self-serving speeches by Chair Shawn Langen and a condescending Shawn Donahue, along with all kinds of insults hurled at the county. It also included a "Can't we all get along?" moment from Peg Ferraro, who has skipped several meetings thus year and admitted she knows next to nothing about the GPA bridge projects. Fortunately the meeting included about 13 people from Lower Mont Bethel who streamed in, so to speak, to educate her.  As they made abundantly clear, former Executive John Brown included five bridges located along Little Creek Road in this 33-bridge project. That stretch, a designated scenic byway, is part of the Delaware River Valley Scenic Byway. Without bothering to consult with the Township in any way, Brown selected five bridges in that corridor for replacement even though four and possibly all five bridges need no work. He ignored bridges in the county that actually are structurally deficient* and then refused to respond to inquiries from residents and Township officials. In one instance, he used a tag team of county and GPA lawyers to threaten a 75 year-old resident who has lived along that road for the last 30 years.

Let me tell you about Little Creek Road. Resident Michele Szoka did a better job than I could in the video above, in which she drives along the road and the bridges slated for replacement. The road is hugged by shale hills on one side and a high quality trout stream on the other. The speed limit in that area is just 25 mph, which is helped along by one-lane bridges. As Szoka observes, widening the bridges or altering the curbs in the road will only invite drivers to speed. She adds that many of the homes are right against the road, and fast cars or big trucks will endanger the lives and safety of children who live there.

Lower Mt Bethel residents arrive in force

Lower Mount Bethel Supervisor Sandra Newman said she was "appalled at the lack of communication" from the county. Her sentiment was shared by nearly every other speaker. Amazingly, Chair Shawn Langen responded by asking what efforts they had made to reach out. They produced letter after letter. Newman added that the Township roadmaster had contacted the county several times, and heard nothing.

Solicitor John Lushis denied he had contacted any resident, and then resident Quentin Carnicelli produced what he called a threatening letter from him, which Lushis apparently forgot..

Newman and Szoka both referred to the scenic bypass as a "gem" and argued that the bridge replacements are totally unnecessary while Langen and Shawn Donahue blamed everything on the county, saying the county selected these bridges.

It would be more accurate to say that John Brown the former Executive picked them. Langen suggested that the bridges could be swapped out for five others. Another possibility would be to reduce the scope of the project by five bridges. No construction or design work has been done on any of them, so Kriger's costs should be minimal. 

Here are the five bridges slated for replacement

Bridge 185 (built 1917) is considered functionally obsolete because it is one-lane, but is not structurally deficient. Average daily traffic is 200 cars.

Bridge 41 (built 1946) is neither functionally obsolete nor structurally deficient. Average daily traffic is 200 cars. There is a 20-ton weight limit.

Bridge 43 (built 1911) is a concrete, arch-deck bridge that is rated functionally obsolete, but is not structurally deficient. It is considered stronger than most county bridges, but is single lane. According to Szoka, any attempt to widen it will result in destruction of properties on either side, and will destroy flora and fauna in and around the creek. Average daily traffic is 350 cars. There is a 20-ton weight limit.

Bridge 44 (built 1957) is a steel-beam bridge considered neither functionally obsolete nor structurally deficient. Average daily traffic is 200 cars. There is no weight limit.

Bridge 195 (built 1927) is a concrete-encased steel beam bridge that is rated both functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. It is single lane. I question whether it is really structurally deficient because the structural evaluation numbers are all 4 or higher. According to Supervisor Newman, the Township Engineer  and a third-party engineer have determined the bridge is adequate. Average daily traffic is 150 cars. There is no weight limit.

Obviously, these bridges should never have been included in the P3 

In other business, newly appointed members Paul Anthony and Frank Pintabone are doing something the GPA should have been doing all along - asking questions. They both had questions about the bills from Conrad O'Brien and Lushis. Anthony asked again to see wage certifications.

Pintabone also took Langen to task for failing to provide any meaningful responses to Lower Mount Bethel residents  "If we're speaking just to let them speak, I can go home," he said. "The only thing we've done so far is say, 'It's not us.'"

Langen did step down as the GPA authorized rep on the P3 project. He claimed he is too busy, but I think the more likely reason is that he has not been paid. Though the GPA is looking for someone else, this seems like a waste of time. The third-party engineer can just report monthly as he has been doing.

* Bridge Lingo

Sufficiency Rating is essentially an overall rating of a bridge's fitness for the duty that it performs based on factors derived from over 20 NBI data fields, including fields that describe its Structural Evaluation, Functional Obsolescence, and its essentiality to the public.

"Structurally deficient" means that the condition of the bridge includes a significant defect, which often means that speed or weight limits must be put on the bridge to ensure safety; a structural evaluation of 4 or lower qualifies a bridge as "structurally deficient".

"Functionally obsolete" bridges are those that do not have adequate lane widths, shoulder widths, or vertical clearances to serve current traffic demand, or those that may be occasionally flooded. A functionally obsolete bridge is similar to an older house.

"Structural evaluation" is a number for a bridge, based on its deck, superstructure, substructure, and culvert. Anything below a 4 is trouble.