Completion of the Laudermilch Road bridge spanning the Norfolk Southern railroad in Derry Township has been pushed back by one year, with the new completion date estimated to be July of 2026, according to PennDOT.
The delay, according to state representative Tom Mehaffie, is attributed to Norfolk Southern, which, per its policy, must be on site when any work is being performed.
“NS has the right to do it the way they want to do it,” Mehaffie said. “With all the things NS wants, and all the reviews that it did, it took a long time.”
The $10.6 million project started in November of 2023 much to the chagrin of area residents, who use the bridge daily.
But it was a replacement that had to be done, according to Mehaffie, as the bridge was Sun Country’s most “structurally deficient” span, having been built in 1917, and having no major repairs since it was constructed more than a century ago.
The irony is the bridge was slated to be part of PennDOT’s Rapid Replacement Program in 2018, an initiative to replace 558 bridges state-wide, but that never came to fruition.
“It’s not the contractor, it’s not PennDOT,” Mehaffie said. “If it’s not for Norfolk Southern, that bridge would have been done pretty quickly in comparison.”
Wreck off the Bridge
The uncompleted bridge quite literally became a ramp for one driver, who ignored the signs and barriers and drove off the end of the bridge on Dec. 27, according to police.
No injuries were reported, and the driver was charged with DUI.
For more on the crash, see: news.thesunontheweb.com/articles/dui-charge-filed-in-crash/
Read more at https://news.thesunontheweb.com/articles/delayed-another-year/