Pennsylvania Historic Preservation

Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Environmental Review (Page 1 of 10)

Group of people standing on a metal bridge over water.
June 2020 Friends' event commemorating their Cumberland County Historical Society History Pops! grant and the unveiling of their Save Our Bridge banner. Photo courtesy of WSHS.

Celebrating the Friends of Sheepford Road Bridge

May 10, 2023 / / 1 Comment

Each week in May, to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, we will highlight one of the 2022 Community Initiative Award winners. In this week’s post, I asked Janice Lynx, Executive Director of the West Short Historical Society, about their successful efforts to save Sheepford Road Bridge.

Sheepford Road Bridge is one of the first bridges to receive funds from PennDOT’s Historic Metal Truss Capital Rehabilitation Program, a new program created to promote the rehabilitation of historic metal truss bridges. I’ll take this opportunity to let our readers know that we also publish a biannual newsletter in partnership with PennDOT dedicated to the preservation and reuse of metal truss bridges. You can sign up here!

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Metal bridge with wood railings on concrete abutments over water.
Messerall Road Bridge in its new location over Linesville Creek along the Pymatuning State Park Spillway Trail in Linesville, Crawford County. Photograph by Daniel Bickel, 2022.

Messerall Road Bridge: The Next Chapter

April 26, 2023 / / 3 Comments

The main character of our story, the Messerall Road Bridge, began its life over Pine Creek near East Titusville in 1876, carrying traffic associated with the local oil and lumber industries. The bridge served as a crossing over Pine Creek nearly 140 years before it was closed to vehicular traffic in 1987.

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Mitigation Spotlight: Section 106 Agreements, July 2022 – December 2022

February 8, 2023 / / 0 Comments

This is part of a biannual blog series highlighting the agreement documents executed by PA SHPO in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and its implementing regulations.

Between July 1 and December 31 of 2022, PA SHPO has been a signatory to approximately nine (9) Section 106 agreement documents with four different federal agencies as part of consultation for the resolution of adverse effects to historic properties. 

Below illustrates a selection of the agreement documents executed within the past six months.

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Two people on bikes in bike lane next to metal truss bridge.
Visitors along the Oil Creek State Park Bike Trail in Venango County stop to admire the Jersey Bridge, just one of several metal truss bridges along the trail. Photo by Barbara Frederick.

O’er the Bridge We Go!

December 14, 2022 / / 2 Comments

For many, the holidays are filled with stories and traditions of the past.  Just hearing the song Jingle Bells makes me wonder what it would feel like to go dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh. Or better yet, to ride a sleigh over a historic metal truss bridge.  Oh, what fun that would be!

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Metal truss bridge over water and surrounded by trees.
Cons Road Bridge in Franklin Township, Bradford County. Photograph by Veronica Martin.

A New Funding Source for Metal Truss Bridges

October 26, 2022 / / 1 Comment

If you have been following the PA SHPO Blog, then you have probably read about the Metal Truss Bridge Management Plan (Management Plan) and the ongoing effort by PennDOT and the PA SHPO to preserve historic metal truss bridges whenever feasible. Recently, as of 2021, a new federally funded program has been created to support the rehabilitation of these bridges.

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Man standing outside next to a machine removing soil.
The Paleo-Digger. Here, the auger, is being lowered into the test unit. Photograph by Barry Fritz, Quemahoning Cultural Resource Management Services.

Meet the Paleo-Digger

October 5, 2022 / / 1 Comment

October is Archaeology Month! Today’s post by Guest Contributor PennDOT archaeologist Steve McDougal covers using a non-traditional method for field tests: the Paleo-Digger.

Every archaeological survey poses different conditions and challenges. For PennDOT’s SR 22/322 safety improvement project in Northern Dauphin County, one of the big challenges is the depth of soils involved. Past excavation in the 1990s for this area showed us that the soil column with archaeological potential could extend 3.5 to 4.5 meters (11.5 to 14.75 feet) in depth below current ground surface.

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