Consultant To Unveil Design Plans For Newtown Pedestrian Bridge

NEWTOWN TOWNSHIP, PA — The design of a new pedestrian bridge that will link Newtown Borough and Newtown Township over the Newtown Creek will be unveiled during a special meeting on Thursday, June 26 at the Newtown Township building.

During the 7 p.m. meeting, representatives from Howell Engineering will outline plans for the design of the new bridge, which will cross Newtown Creek next to the old trolley foundations between Frost Lane in Newtown Borough and Sycamore Street in Newtown Township.

In April, the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to hire Howell to design the new span. The board also executed three easement agreements that will allow the joint project with Newtown Borough and the nonprofit Newtown Creek Coalition to move forward.

“This is a huge step for the project,” said Mike Sellers of the Newtown Creek Coalition in April. The coalition is a nonprofit that is partnering with the township and the borough on the project. “Since October we have worked with the township manager, solicitor and engineer to do the necessary work to get proposals from design engineers and very importantly to secure the easements needed in order to do the project.”

The new pedestrian bridge will be built over the Newtown Creek, bridging the two municipalities between North Sycamore Street (behind Penn Community Bank) and Frost Lane and Edgeboro Drive in Newtown Borough. The bridge will also serve as a “missing link” in the county’s extensive bicycle trail network.

Mike Sellers, of the Newtown Creek Coalition, stands next to a remnant of the stone trolley bridge that once crossed the Newtown Creek at Frost Lane. (Jeff Werner)

The project is being fully funded by a $1 million grant awarded by the Commonwealth Financing Authority and secured by State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren.

“The addition of a pedestrian bridge over Newtown Creek will not only bridge two municipalities together, but will improve our local and regional trail connectivity,” said Senator Santarsiero.

“The Newtown Creek Pedestrian Bridge is near and dear to my heart,” added Rep. Warren. “This bridge will connect communities, both physically and metaphorically, as Newtown Borough residents and Newtown Township residents on 'the other side of the creek' will have safe pedestrian access to the Sycamore Street commercial and business district, and all residents will have another recreational area to enjoy. Thank you to the Newtown Creek Coalition for its vision for this project and its effort in moving it toward fruition.”

According to Sellers, the new span will be built next to the stone abutments of a former bridge that once carried trolleys over the creek in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

The grant will also fund the construction of new pedestrian trails leading up to the bridge on both sides of the creek.

The trolley line was discontinued in 1923. It had once traversed Penn Street and State Street before crossing the creek at Frost Lane and continuing its journey to Doylestown.

The project is designed to provide a safe, recreational connection across Newtown Creek, fill in a missing link in the local and county trail system, and provide a safer alternative for walkers and bikers to cross the creek.

The idea of a pedestrian bridge was first broached at a meeting of the Newtown Borough Creek Coalition in the township and the creek coalition in 2010.

“We started talking about ways to get safely across the creek and began looking at the possibility of repurposing the old trolley line bridge as a pedestrian crossing," said Sellers.

Up until 2016, residents had the option of crossing the creek using a pedestrian bridge located off of North State Street. That bridge, however, located on private property, was shut down after it fell into
disrepair and became a liability for the property owner.