Two Wissahickon Creek bridges will be rebuilt with federal grant money

When the Wissahickon Creek floods, water pressure tears at the already weakened Valley Green Road and Bells Mill Bridges, each nearly 200 years old. As climate change brings more violent rainstorms, the bridges have faced increased pummeling.

Now the stone-arch spans will be reconstructed thanks to a $14.2 million competitive grant from the Federal Highway Administration from a program designed to strengthen transportation infrastructure against climate-related threats.

“We’re really good about responding to emergencies. This is about working in resiliency before something happens,” Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said Wednesday in the 1,800-acre Wissahickon Valley Park in Northwest Philadelphia.

He and Ali Zaidi, the White House climate adviser, celebrated the funding from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure act, to the musical accompaniment of Canada geese and wood ducks near the Valley Green Road Bridge.

The highway administration is awarding about $830 million in the PROTECT grants across the nation. Both of the bridges are listed in poor condition on the National Bridge Inventory, which rates the spans that need the most attention.

“The changing climate is not an abstraction,” Zaidi said. “It’s a lived reality for communities here and all across America, whether it’s the fury of floods, or unsustainable precipitation patterns, drought parching the West, [or] wildfires.”

The Bells Mills Bridge stretches across the creek, providing access to a nearby hospital. “Imagine not even a hurricane, but a big nor’easter that just parks itself over the area,” Bhatt said. The road also is the main way for motorists to traverse the park.

The Valley Green Road Bridge provides access to the inn of the same name and is heavily used by hikers and cyclists.

It will be closed to vehicles but open to pedestrians and cyclists during construction, the Department of Streets said, while provisions for the inn will arrive by a nearby road.

One of the two lanes on the Bells Mill Bridge will remain open throughout construction, the department said.

“We’re so grateful to see these dollars get spent — to have these bridges restored, maintained and made an asset for generations to come,” said Ruffian Tittmann, executive director of Friends of the Wissahickon, which is now celebrating its 100th anniversary.

City officials estimated that the project will take about four years, with two years of design work and two years of construction.

Bhatt noted the irony of federal highway money shoring up bridges in a park famous for its Forbidden Drive, where motor vehicles are not allowed.

The grant, along with $6.7 million for a Pittsburgh interstate called “the bathtub” because it regularly floods, comes amid the 2024 presidential campaign, with Pennsylvania once again a pivotal swing state.

“There are no Republican bridges or Democratic roads,” Bhatt said, adding that he is visiting West Virginia soon to award a grant there. “Last I checked, it is probably not going to be in question on election night for the president.”

Former President Donald Trump won heavily Republican West Virginia in 2020 with 68% of the vote.

“We don’t evaluate these projects based on electoral consequences,” Bhatt said. “They are all scored by our professional staff on the merits.”

The Wissahickon projects received a top rating, both for the need and importance of the bridges and because of the Biden administration’s policy of committing 40% of infrastructure funds to underserved communities.

“This is not just people of means taking a leisurely stroll,” Bhatt said. “You can reach it by transit and the park is heavily used by people from the diverse neighborhoods around it,” he said.

This story has been updated to correct the amount of money available for grants. It is nearly $830 million.