Redds Mill Road Bridge is small, just 67 feet long, crossing the picturesque Pigeon Creek as it meanders through Fallowfield in Washington County.

Though only about 350 vehicles drive over the span a day, the severe decay that left a gaping hole in the bridge was enough to alarm inspectors who turned out in October to examine the aging structure.

“The 2021 Interim Inspection has identified significant additional deterioration on the underside of the deck,” the inspectors wrote in the “Notes” section of their report.

They urged immediate repairs because of what was found. “The placement of a steel plate was required due to severe deterioration on the underside of the deck,” the inspector noted. “The Township subsequently installed the plate on 10/21/21.”

Though those details were etched in a report “note” — critical disclosures about the bridge’s condition — and sent to the state Department of Transportation, the data is not available to the people who cross the bridge in their vehicles each day or to the residents of the community who have known the span for generations.

The memos for Redds Mill Road Bridge are among thousands that are written by inspectors — notes that accompany inspections of more than 20,000 bridges — and once posted on PennDOT’s website, but taken down in the wake of the disastrous collapse of Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge this year that left 10 people injured and six vehicles crushed in the wreckage.

Searchable database of inspection notes:

 

Just before the data was removed, the Post-Gazette obtained the now secret database of inspection notes that show the details of nearly every bridge from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, including the conditions of more than 3,000 spans that are rated poor.

At a time when such information is concealed — including the inspection reports for Fern Hollow — the disclosures offer a rare glimpse into spans that are badly in need of repair or replacement, and in some cases, not getting any help despite cautionary remarks by inspectors.

In Columbia County last year, inspectors found that a bridge was threatened with “critical deficiencies” because of severe deterioration. In Chester County last October, inspectors responded to a call from a member of the public warning them about “the decaying bridge” following a prior inspection that found “[s]agging bottom of sidewalk slabs.”

“The public should have a right to see that,” said Bruce Smith, chairman of the Fallowfield board of supervisors, about the assessment of Redds Mill Road Bridge, which will soon be renovated. “I see no reason to hide details like that.”

Mr. Smith said the notes kept by inspectors about the bridge in his township were strikingly accurate and provide a peek into the aging infrastructure of a local landmark. “The hole we repaired there, you could see straight through the [bridge] deck right down to the creek. It was bad.”

Bridges mentioned in this story

The notes by the inspectors, which the Post-Gazette is making available in an online searchable database, were once open to the public through searching on the Department of Transportation website.

But when the Post-Gazette began asking questions in early February about the origins of the notes on the One Map website, PennDOT removed the data, as well as another section that identified people involved in the inspection of each bridge.

In early March, the state confirmed it had stripped the information from the site, claiming the notes were not open to the public under state and federal law. The state has also turned down repeated requests to see full inspection reports.

The lack of disclosure raises questions about what should be available to the public — people who are most at risk in the event of infrastructure disasters — and what should be withheld because of the complexity of the reports.

For PennDOT, the reasoning for withholding the inspection data is the public may misinterpret the notes or would not understand them — let alone be able to digest a full report. But also that sharing either the notes or a full report would pose a potential security risk.

“You wouldn’t believe the folks that want to do harm and try to do things to hurt others and we’re reluctant to put inspection reports out there that would show there’s a weakness in a structure, for fear that someone might do something at that location,” said Cheryl Moon-Sirianni, executive for PennDOT’s District 11, which includes Allegheny County.

Advocates say there has never been a credible threat on bridges by terrorists in Pennsylvania and that the public — which is the most at risk — is capable of understanding the rudiments of inspection reports.

“They’re the people we answer to,” said Chris Young, a longtime Columbia County commissioner and advocate for the county’s covered bridges that are a major tourist attraction. “If there’s something I should keep from the public, it’s probably something I shouldn’t be doing.”

In the case of Fern Hollow, several citizens warned the city about the severe deterioration in the years prior to the collapse, and in one incident, a local engineer even tweeted out a picture of the decay that was later acknowledged by city officials. But the major repairs were never carried out, records show.

In other bridges across the state, the writing by inspectors reveals serious concerns that were not generally known to the communities, even if local officials knew a bridge was in need of repairs.

For instance, an inspector wrote last May about the state-owned Wildwood Road Bridge in Hampton: “Numerous shallow spalls [areas of deteriorating concrete] were noted throughout all spans along with reflective cracking of the beams. Continue to monitor this bridge.” Though it’s only 40 years old, state officials say its poor design has doomed it, and by next year, it will be largely replaced.

Inspectors in 2021 at the Esther Furnace Covered Bridge in  Columbia County wrote that “additional decay [of the bridge’s end posts] could result in high priority or critical deficiencies and/or closure of the bridge.”

Mr. Young said he believed the full inspections — which include the notes — should be a public record. At the Post-Gazette’s request, he provided the most recent inspections for two of the county’s 23 covered bridges: Esther Furnace and Richards Covered Bridge.

He said getting the public’s interest can help, “because the public can drive funding.”