The project is designed to provide a safe, recreational connection across Newtown Creek and fill a missing link in the local trail system.
Patch Staff
|Updated Thu, Nov 30, 2023 at 11:06 am ET
NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Newtown Township has officially submitted a grant application to the state that if successful would pay for the construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the Newtown Creek linking the borough and the township.
Earlier this month, the township, working in partnership with Newtown Borough and the Newtown Creek Coalition, submitted the application to the Commonwealth Financing Authority's Local Share Account Grant Program for just under $1 million to fund the entire project.
The new span would be built next to a former bridge that once carried trolleys over the creek in the late 1800s and early 1900s. It would connect Newtown Borough at Frost Lane and Edgeboro Drive with North Sycamore Street in the township behind Penn Community Bank.
In addition to the new bridge, the grant would fund pedestrian links from the new bridge to existing sidewalks on either side of the span.
A rare view of the former trolley bridge crossing the Newtown Creek. (Contributed)
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Newtown Creek Coalition President Mike Sellers said he's optimistic that the grant application will be successful given the unique partnership put together between the borough, the township, and the coalition.
"Usually it's just one municipality going after a grant. This is two municipalities plus a nonprofit," said Sellers. "We believe we have put together a grant application that will stand out from the others.
"On the merits of the application itself, I also believe we make a solid case because we have submitted a soup-to-nuts project, which will be totally constructed and useful if we get what we are asking for," said Sellers.
The project also has the backing and support of State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, State Rep. Perry Warren, the Bucks County Commissioners, the Bucks County Planning Commission, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, the Heritage Conservancy, the Newtown Historical Association, the borough and township planning commissions, and the Central Bucks Bicycle Club.
"In terms of timeline, we would expect to hear mid-2024," said Sellers. "If the grant is approved, then we go forward with more planning and permitting and then there would be construction and completion in 2025."
The project is designed to provide a safe, recreational connection across Newtown Creek, fill in a missing link in the local and Bucks 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 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.
“There is no safe pedestrian crossing anywhere along the creek as it exists,” said Sellers.
Remnants of the old trolley bridge. (Contributed)
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.
Pedestrians also have the option of crossing at the two existing bridges - one owned by the county on Jefferson and the other owned by the state at Centre Avenue.
But Sellers called the spans problematic for safe pedestrian crossing, noting that both only have a walkway on one side, which makes two-way pedestrian traffic a challenge with baby strollers and larger groups of pedestrians.
And Sellers said retrofitting either bridge with a second sidewalk to create a safer condition would be a “tremendous struggle.
“The good news is pedestrians can cross in some fashion. The bad news is it is particularly difficult for bikers, walkers and strollers to get across the creek,” said Sellers.
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 footbridge would create a safe recreational pedestrian connection between the township and the borough,” said Sellers.
A map showing the location of the proposed pedestrian bridge.
Just before COVID hit, the coalition had approached the township and the borough with the idea of creating the new pedestrian crossing and working in partnership to bring the project to fruition. They also proposed a grant application that would require a municipal match.
In late 2019, just months before the pandemic, the township supervisors and the borough council approved resolutions supporting the concept and working with each other and the Newtown Creek Coalition to explore the feasibility of the project.
When COVID hit in early 2020, the project fell by the wayside as local officials dealt with more pressing matters. The coalition, however, continued to investigate the project behind the scenes.
The one positive that came out of the pandemic, said Sellers, is that changes to the grant specifications allowed the coalition to pursue 100 percent grant funding for the project without a municipal match.
In late 2022, Sellers and the creek coalition resurrected the idea with another round of appearances before the board of supervisors and the borough council. This time the coalition proposed securing a grant that would pay for the entire project with no municipal match.
Earlier this year, both municipalities authorized their engineers to begin working together on the project and to pursue the grant opportunity. And in the past few months, Newtown Borough Council and the Newtown Township Board of Supervisors approved resolutions supporting the grant application.
In addition to the Frost Lane Road bridge, developer Allan Smith has proposed building a second pedestrian bridge on the southern end of the borough that would provide a pedestrian link from his Steeple View project to Carl Sedia Park in Newtown Township.
"To have book-end bridges like that would really help pedestrians from getting from one side of the creek to the other," said Sellers. "We'd have one at the north and one at the south. It would create a nice circulation at each end of State Street and each end of Sycamore."