Volunteers who maintain trails at Lackawanna State Park say a new bridge will withstand weather and allow the public to continue to enjoy a popular path.
The Lackawanna State Park Trail Care Crew will replace two bridges with one on the Ranger Trail that spans Kennedy Creek. The single pre-manufactured truss bridge will be 50 feet long and 4 feet wide, with trusses and railings made of fiberglass reinforced polymer and wood decking. The bridges it will replace are each 24 feet long with a 20-foot-long island between them.
The new bridge will stand about 100 yards downstream of the current bridges’ location. Crew officials say the new location is out of the flood zone, with more clearance from the creek. Bedford Reinforced Plastics is making the bridge and will deliver it in sections. The existing bridges will be dismantled.
The new span will be the largest built by the nonprofit organization, which maintains trails and bridges in the park in Benton and North Abington townships.
Joe Tierney, a longtime volunteer and board member of the nonprofit organization, said they decided to construct a new bridge two and a half years ago because they got tired of renovating and rebuilding the existing bridges, which went up in 2010. Increasingly volatile storms meant volunteers were spending more time fixing them, he said.
“It was just stressing the volunteers a lot to keep relying on or spending our hours here instead of able to spend our volunteer hours throughout the whole trail system and improving other spots,” Tierney said. Volunteers have repaired or replaced the bridges more than 10 times since they were built. “To continue to put volunteer hour resources and money for new lumber and that sort of thing is just not feasible.”
The worst weather events for the bridges occurred in 2018, when icebergs hit one of the bridges and tore it in half, and in late 2023, when flash flooding caused a giant tree to rip the spans from their foundations. Tierney said it took volunteers a week to get the bridges back on their foundations.
He said the new bridge is designed to last 100 years, with little maintenance required. It will also be able to withstand the weight of pedestrians and cyclists who use the trail. Being out of the flood zone also makes it less prone to weather-related events.
“We are out of the volatility of the water during high rain events,” Tierney said.
The nonprofit organization received approval from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the project last year and are in the process of applying for a state Department of Environmental Protection permit to put in cement abutments for the new bridge and a temporary permit to remove the existing bridges. He expects work will start once they receive the permit.
A rendering of the new bridge on the Ranger Trail at Lackawanna State Park spanning Kennedy Creek. (Submitted)
A trail bridge stretches over Kennedy Creek along the Ranger Trail in Lackawanna State Park in North Abington Twp. Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A trail bridge stretches over Kennedy Creek along the Ranger Trail in Lackawanna State Park in North Abington Twp. Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The foundation to the trail bridge that stretches over Kennedy Creek along the Ranger Trail in Lackawanna State Park in North Abington Twp. Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Joe Tierney, member of the Lackawanna State Park Trail Care Crew, holds up a rendering of what the new bridge will look like.
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A rendering of the new bridge on the Ranger Trail at Lackawanna State Park spanning Kennedy Creek. (Submitted)
The project cost includes $37,000 for the bridge and its transportation and $15,000 for its foundation. DesignBLD of Exeter is providing engineering services valued at $39,000 for free. The engineering firm is conducting hydrology, surveying and designing the bridge’s foundation. The volunteer organization is financing the project and plans to use volunteers to build the abutments and put the bridge together and rework the trails to connect them to the new bridge. The crew will reuse the materials that make up the existing bridges.
The organization received a donation from the Eureka Foundation for the project and is accepting public donations at ppff.app.neoncrm.com/forms/lsptcc.
The trail is a main thoroughfare in the park, located in the center of a 30-mile trail system that spans the state park and lands owned by Countryside Conservancy. Tierney estimates the trails receive more than 360,000 visitors every year and are popular with runners, hikers and cyclists.
Tom and Sue Williams of South Abington Twp. walk the trails several times a week. Sue Williams likes that a new bridge is being built and hopes it will last.
Park Manager Lee Dillon is thrilled about the project, adding it will make it easier for visitors to go through Ranger Trail.
“The new bridge will make it easier to maintain that section of the trail and make that section of the trail safer,” he said. “It’s going to be a great addition to the system.”
Tierney said the bridge allows visitors to stay on the trail and experience nature.
“This is just a facility that is here for the enjoyment and the value of the community, to add value to our northeastern Pennsylvania,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful way to see nature.”