Weighing in on Fetters Mill Road bridge

Residents will get a chance to talk about the future of the historic Fetters Mill Road bridge during a public meeting next month.

The timing coincides with the data-collection and analysis phase of a study being done on the bridge, which the county hopes to begin restoring fully next year.

The bridge spans Pennypack Creek, with Lower Moreland and Bryn Athyn on either end. It reopened in April with added wooden supports after state inspectors concluded it was structurally unsafe and closed it in November. Still, there are limits — only one car at a time can cross it. And trucks, emergency vehicles and anything over 6,000 pounds are not welcome.

The meeting announcement released Wednesday said that the meeting "will explore three traffic flow options being considered for the one-lane bridge."
Those options are:

• "Two-way traffic across the bridge with alternating directions of traffic controlled by 'STOP' signs placed at either end of the bridge;

• "Two-way traffic across the one-lane bridge with alternating directions of traffic controlled by traffic signals on either side of the bridge, plus additional signals for traffic exiting the Post Office driveway;

• "One-way traffic across the bridge in the westbound direction only towards Pennypack Lane. Traffic would be controlled by 'One-Way' and 'Do Not Enter' signs along the approaches to the bridge. Traffic heading in the eastbound direction would be directed to follow Fetters Mill Road south to Terwood Road and then along Terwood Road to Old Welsh Road, then continue east along Old Welsh Road to Huntingdon Pike and then north along Huntingdon Pike back to Fetters Mill Road."

The meeting is scheduled for Sept. 12, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., in the Lower Moreland High School auditorium, 555 Red Lion Road in Huntingdon Valley.

Besides officials from the county, staff from the Arora and Associates engineering consulting firm will be at the meeting and present some initial findings from the study.