Pierceville Bridge Preservation Project, Tunkhannock PA
Wyoming County, Pennsylvania - A project to relocate and restore the historic Pierceville Bridge, currently located on SR-1029 over Tunkhannock Creek, to nearby Tunkhannock Township’s Lazy Brook Park is underway. The preservation project is part of a $3,014,013 contract that includes construction of a new replacement highway bridge on SR-1029. SR-1029 has been closed to traffic for years due to deterioration of the historic bridge. At Lazy Brook Park, the historic bridge will cross a flood relief channel and function as a footbridge for park visitors. This project will provide a new functional bridge for SR-1029 motorists, an iconic landmark for Lazy Brook Park, and will preserve one of the rarest historic bridges in Pennsylvania. The restoration will be the first in Pennsylvania to include historically accurate hot metal riveting for the restoration work. Kriger Construction of Dickson City, PA is the general contractor for the project with the specialized historic bridge restoration work being subcontracted to Bach Steel of Holt, MI.
The 113 foot Pierceville Bridge was built in 1881, and is a particularly unusual and rare type of iron truss bridge called a “lenticular” truss bridge, so-called because the trusses have a distinctive “lens” shape to them. Only five lenticular truss bridges remain in Pennsylvania, including the well-known Smithfield Street Bridge in Pittsburgh. The Pierceville Bridge is also noteworthy because it is the oldest lenticular truss bridge in Pennsylvania and one of the oldest lenticular truss bridges in the United States. It was built by the Corrugated Metal Company of East Berlin, Connecticut, which later changed its name to the Berlin Iron Bridge Company and was a promoter of its distinctive lenticular truss bridges, for which the company held a patent.
The historic bridge restoration will be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania because it is an “in-kind” restoration where a focus is placed on making the historic truss look exactly like it did 134 years ago when it was brand new. This means retaining as much original metal on the truss as possible, and making sure that any original metal that is replaced will be replaced with an exact replica, not a modern variation. One of the most noteworthy aspects of in-kind restoration is that any failed rivets on the bridge will be replaced with rivets and not modern bolts. Rivets were the fastener of choice for most metal structures built before 1970, but after 1970 the use of bolts and welding became the preferred method. This contract is believed to be the first Pennsylvania bridge contract in decades to specify riveting work. Finally, to complete the look of the bridge at its new location, the stones from the masonry abutments of the bridge will be moved and incorporated into the new abutments at Lazy Brook Park. Interpretive signage will also be installed at the park to inform park visitors of the bridge’s history and significance.
Author: Nathan Holth, HistoricBridges.org
Music by Bensound.com
Cornstock Folk Festival 2017 Spare Parts
Cornstock Folk Festival
September 1-3, 2017
Lazy Brook Park, Tunkhannock, PA
Little Rocky Glen - Factoryville, Pa. 4/20/2017
Located in Wyoming County, Pennsylvania, this small stretch of paradise is located on the South Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek between the towns of Factoryville and Tunkhannock. This local treasure is open to the public from April 1st to December 1st from dusk to dawn.
Muisc: Foggy Mountain Breakdown by Joe Maphis.
Cessna 172 Tunkhannock creek Viaduct ( Nicholson,Pa)
OCT 2016 Tunkhannock Creek Viaduct (also known as the Nicholson Bridge and the Tunkhannock Viaduct) is a concrete deck arch bridge that spans Tunkhannock Creek in Nicholson, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Measuring 2,375 feet (724 m) long and towering 240 feet (73.15 m) when measured from the creek bed (300 feet (91.44 m) from bedrock), it was the largest concrete structure in the world when completed in 1915[3] and still merited the title of largest concrete bridge in America, if not the world 50 years later.
Built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W), the bridge is owned today by Norfolk Southern[5] and is used daily for regular through freight service.
The DL&W built the viaduct as part of its 39.6-mile (63.7 km) Nicholson Cutoff, which replaced a winding and hilly section of the route between Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Binghamton, New York, saving 3.6 miles (5.8 km), 21 minutes of passenger train time, and one hour of freight train time. The bridge was designed by the DL&W's Abraham Burton Cohen;[6] other key DL&W staff were G. J. Ray, chief engineer; F. L. Wheaton, engineer of construction; and C. W. Simpson, resident engineer in charge of the construction. The contractor was Flickwir & Bush, including general manager F. M. Talbot and superintendent W. C. Ritner
Trout Rescue Mission near Tunkhannock Pennsylvania - Native Salvelinus Fontinalis
Mehoopany Creek, designated as an HQ-CWF stream.
This stream is still a valuable breeding ground for the endangered native trout. (But Oil and Gas Drilling operations may soon end life as we know it for all Pennsylvania watersheds)
This spring fed tributary - 50 degree ambient temperature water during the winter, 50 degree ambient temperature water during the summer. But there was a drought in the summer of 2008.
This video was taken on 11/31/2008 while the outside temperature was between 15 - 18 degrees F.
These trout received human aid during the summer drought by [Censored] water out of [Censored], and they are all alive today. (see next video)
The next few videos I post are documentation of what will be fleeting moments in time that will prove native trout once existed - before the Gas Drilling & Fracking operations began.
[PDF] A Natural Areas Inventory of Sullivan County, Pennsylvania
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
fisheries value of Mehoopany Creek, designated as an HQ-CWF stream. ...... Mehoopany Creek is a HQ-CWF throughout its basin from the source to ...
naturalheritage.state.pa.us/.../Sullivan%20County%20NAI%201995_ 2001.pdf
Snake
Snake in the water - Tunkhannock Creek, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.
Morning trout fishing 5/17/2016
Martins Creek in Bangor, PA.