Older taxpayer-supported bridges get retrofitted during overhauls.īecause the Burlington County Bridge Commission is essentially a private bridge owner – its money comes from commuter tolls – neither the Federal Highway Administration nor the state Department of Transportation will order an earthquake retrofit for the Tacony-Palmyra. Designs for new bridges built with state or federal funds must meet updated earthquake -proofing standards. Transportation officials nationwide say thousands of older bridges could collapse from a moderate earthquake. To them, the $1.9 million that the commissioners have tentatively put aside to retrofit the Tacony-Palmyra would be money well spent. They say the project is basically a matter of driving nails through the bridge's feet to increase its chance of staying put if shaken. Heimmer and everyone else in the commission's Palmyra boardroom erupted in laughter. But the point was a serious one – to the commission, to other bridge officials up and down the Delaware, and certainly to seismic experts and state and federal transportation officials.Īlthough a quake rarely strikes this area, it could happen, experts say. "ĭeMarco, a former county Republican chairman whose girth matches his broad influence, was talking about Commissioner John F. Garfield DeMarco wants everyone to know that it is important to spend nearly $2 million to protect the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge from an earthquake. "We have to be prepared," the chairman of the Burlington County Bridge Commission cracked at this month's meeting, "in case me and John walk across the bridge together. Like Many Spans, the Tacony-Palmyra is Vulnerable to Quakes. OBSOLETE BRIDGES HAVE OFFICIALS RUMBLING – September 19, 1993 Not sure what t he Bridge Commission ultimately decided to do. With a 5.9-magnitude earthquake striking the East Coast today, August 23, 2011, want to quickly share a story I wrote while covering Burlington County only a couple of months after I joined the South Jersey bureau of The Philadelphia Inquirer. What seemed unimaginable to many at the time took just 18 years.
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