Schlicher's Covered Bridge

About

Schlicher's Covered Bridge carries Game Preserve Road over Jordan Creek within the Trexler Nature Preserve, southwest of Schnecksville in North Whitehall Township, Lehigh County. The present bridge is a 2014 reconstruction of an 1882 double Burr arch truss, about 116 ft long. It is open to vehicles and sits on the main route to the Lehigh Valley Zoo. Larson Design Group describes it as the last covered bridge owned by PennDOT District 5.

History

The original bridge was built in 1882 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 1, 1980. It was closed to traffic in 2009 because of severe deterioration and about 1.8 ft of sag. In the rebuild, steel I-beams replaced the timber stringers and floor beams, the substructures were rebuilt in reinforced concrete with an architectural surface, and deteriorated truss members were replaced in kind; about 90 percent of the original timber needed replacement. Work was completed in 2014 at a cost of $1.8 million, and the new bridge is longer and wider than the original. Later, a truck broke one of its cross beams; PennDOT inspected it, found it stable and planned repairs.

Design

The double Burr arch truss pairs timber arches with a multiple kingpost truss, and steel I-beams now carry the deck between the abutments. The original 1882 bridge measured 108 ft.

Visiting

The bridge is on Game Preserve Road inside the Trexler Nature Preserve. Vehicles can cross it, and PennDOT has said about 800 vehicles use it each day.

Sources: Schlicher Covered Bridge (Wikipedia), Schlicher's Covered Bridge (Larson Design Group), Truck hits historic covered bridge (WFMZ)

Photo: Lehigh Valley, PA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.