McConnell's Mill Bridge [PA-37-01] Photo by Tom Walczak March 9, 2004

McConnell's Mill Bridge [PA-37-01] Photo by Tom Walczak March 9, 2004

March 10, 2003 - As some of you know, I reported this past Sunday at the March meeting of the Theo. Burr Society that the McConnell's Mill Covered Bridge, in my home county of Lawrence, was severely damaged by a tree which fell on it last Friday, March 5th, as a result of high winds which came through that afternoon. The tree fell at approximately 2:30 p.m.
       On my way to the meeting I stopped to view the damage just a few hours after the damage occurred and took a few photos. Upon my return after the weekend, I went out to McConnell's Mill again yesterday to see what had been done to clean up the damage. To my surprise, nothing had been done yet! I did climb around the area and took many photos. Needless to say the bridge and road are closed to traffic.
       When I came home I made a few calls to the County Commissioners (the bridge is county-owned), and the local newspaper. The commissioners have yet to return my call, however, the reporter at the newspaper was most helpful and in fact had the county bridge engineer's office call me. Mr. Bill Humphrey from the engineer's office told me the commissioners are trying to declare the damage an emergency so they can have the tree removed and assess the damage to the bridge, and then begin repairs. They are consulting with the county solicitor for this declaration so the cleanup and repair can begin without having to go through the bidding process which would cause considerable delays. They are also exploring funding as is the case everywhere, the county budget is already stretched to the limit.
       The tree that fell on the bridge was rather large about 30 inches in diameter at the base. It snapped off at the base. In fact there were two trees which snapped off but the larger one is the one that seemed to me to hit the bridge. The western portal was severely damaged and several diagonals were knocked loose in the Howe truss. Also the top chord on the north west corner was broken. And of course the roof partially collapsed on the western end of the bridge. The county engineer said upon their initial inspection it looked to him like about half of the bridge will need to be rebuilt.