Bridge forces closure of Montco's Salford Station Rd.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said that it was closing Salford Station Road yesterday in Upper Salford and Lower Frederick Townships, Montgomery County, because of structural deterioration of the bridge over the Perkiomen Creek. The road was being closed between Walnut Lane and Hendericks Road.

Through traffic will be detoured over Colonial Road, Hendericks Road and Old Skippack Pike.

"After inspecting the bridge this week it was determined that the steel girders, floor beams, and concrete abutments had deteriorated to the extent that we needed to close the bridge for public safety," PennDot district bridge engineer Henry Berman said in a press release. Construction of a new bridge is not expected to start until early 2011.

The three-span, steel girder bridge was built in 1933 and is posted with a weight limit of three tons. The 270-foot-long, 28-foot-wide bridge carries 221 vehicles a day.

- Inquirer staff