River Road (State Route 21) over the Delaware Canal, Bucks County, PASITE-BLAUVELT Engineers was retained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to design a replacement structure for the existing River Road Bridge, which was closed to traffic in the Spring of 1996 due to the discovery of extensive damage to the structure's deck. To expedite the reopening of the bridge and alleviate the detour of thousands of drivers per day, it was decided that the existing stone masonry abutments and wingwalls would be rehabilitated, while the existing superstructure and approaches would undergo complete replacement.The ultimate configuration that was selected to replace the former 46-foot long single-span truss bridge was a stringer-type structure that incorporated architectural timber trusses to soften the appearance of the new concrete parapet and simulate an older "Camelback" configuration. Additional enhancements that were incorporated into the project to better blend the structure into its rustic setting included cleaning and repointing of the substructure's stone masonry, use of stone masonry to construct the southwest wingwall extension, and the application of a stone texture-type finish on the rebuilt northwest retaining wall that would simulate the masonry look of the bridge's existing substructure. |
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