Douglass Township officials were recently awarded a grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Committee to replace a municipally-owned bridge on County Line Road.

        At Monday's board of supervisors meeting, Township Manager Pete Hiryak announced that the municipality will receive $594,500 through the DVRPC 2014 Municipal Bridge Retro-Reimbursement Program to complete the work.

        The grant, which would cover engineering expenses, right-of-way acquisitions, the cost to remove the old bridge and construction of the new structure, requires a township matching contribution of $118,900, according to a Jan. 22 letter from the DVRPC to Hiryak.

        He said after the meeting that municipal officials did not include matching funds in the 2015 budget because they did not know the grant would be awarded.  Money could be utilized from the township's capital fund, according to Hiryak.  "We could also transfer some money," the manager said after the meeting.

        The project to replace the bridge, built in the 1930s, should be completed by September of 2016 in order to secure timely reimbursement, according to the letter from Barry Seymour, the DVRPC's executive director.

        In September, the supervisors directed Gilmore & Associates, their contracted engineering firm, to help complete the application.

        During the Sept. 2 meeting, supervisors Chairman John Stasik, Jr. said the bridge on County Line Road located near the intersection with Swamp Creek Road is in bad shape. He said that its condition has recently been declassified as "poor."  The supervisor cited concerns about the bridge's ability to safely carry school buses and tanker trucks filled with acid going to Global Advanced Metals, a supplier of tantalum products.  "As a retired engineer, I am concerned about the bridge," Stasik said after the meeting.

        A number of new construction concepts have been considered, according to Stasik. He said municipal officials have called on engineers from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to examine the bridge.

        The intent of the program is to reduce the number of structurally deficient bridges in Pennsylvania, according to information obtained from Hiryak.

        Located in Philadelphia, the DVRPC works to foster regional cooperation in a nine-county area in southeastern Pennsylvania and central and southern New Jersey, according to information posted on its website.

        It states that the agency provides services to member governments and others through planning analysis, data collection, and mapping services. Aerial photographs, maps and a variety of publications are available to the public and private sector.