Historic Chesco bridge to reopen Friday

After an $826,689 restoration, a historic Chester County bridge will reopen Friday, PennDot said today in a news release.

The Hares Hill Road Bridge over French Creek in East Pikeland Township, which has been closed since June, will feature rehabilitated girders, new steel structural supports, and a four-foot wide center concrete strip for bicycle use, improvements that will increase the weight limit from seven to 15 tons without affecting the span's "historical integrity," the release said.

Originally built in 1869, the Hares Hill Road Bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only known surviving example of Thomas William Moseley's Wrought-Iron Lattice Girder Bridge and is the only wrought-iron highway bridge in public use in Chester County, the release said.   Kathleen Brady Shea