Credit: Commonwealth Media Services
The Lumberville-Raven Rock Toll-Supported Pedestrian Bridge in Solebury Township over the Delaware River will soon receive continuous electronic monitoring and an architectural lighting system under a $3.2 million project recently approved.
The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission voted late last month to award the $3,227,970 contract to Newtown-based PKF-Mark III Inc.
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Along with safety and aesthetic upgrades, the agency will officially assume responsibility for a long-standing local tradition of the hanging and care of an American flag suspended over the river.
As part of the plan, field preparation is scheduled to start later this summer, with several phases of construction extending into 2027.
Officials expect the pedestrian crossing to remain accessible to walkers throughout construction, with foot traffic directed around work zones using tape, rope, cones, and flexible posts.
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The contract marks a security update for the walkway, which is currently the only crossing in the commission’s transportation system lacking remote monitoring capabilities for high-water events, incidents, or emergencies.
A series of 24/7 security cameras will monitor the river upstream and downstream, giving personnel the ability to confirm reports and accelerate emergency responses to capsized boats, suicide attempts, or collisions between pedestrians and cyclists who fail to dismount.
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Aesthetic updates will focus on highlighting the structure’s distinct multi-catenary profile. Workers will install color-programmable LED “node” fixtures at the upper turnbuckle connections along the main steel-wire cables.
Unlike the commission’s fully illuminated truss bridges, the node lights will strictly outline the sweeping curves of the cable system along the river and use far fewer fixtures than those on the Northampton Street, New Hope-Lambertville, or Uhlerstown-Frenchtown bridges.
Additional lighting work includes replacing energy-inefficient, aging fixtures on the bridge towers with 2700 Kelvin LED units, mounting direct walkway lighting along the downstream railings, and placing color-programmable lights to illuminate the stone-masonry substructure.
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The project also formalizes the display of the bridge’s downstream American flag, a tradition established by the late William E. Tinsman following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Tinsman family and local Lumberville residents have funded the display for nearly 25 years. After Tinsman’s death in 2023, the commission will take over the costs of hanging, maintaining, and removing the banner during high-water conditions later this year.
Although the agency first considered replacing the banner with a larger 12-by-18-foot horizontal flag, officials ultimately decided to retain the current size and vertical orientation, allowing it to remain lit by an existing spotlight at the neighboring Black Bass Hotel.
The pedestrian bridge last underwent a multi-faceted rehabilitation in early 2013, according to the commission.
Connecting the Lumberville section of Solebury Township with the Raven Rock section of Delaware Township, the footbridge is a popular location for artists, photographers, and sightseers. It is funded by revenue from the commission’s toll bridges.
The current structure was built in 1947 by the John A. Roebling and Sons Company, the firm known for constructing the Brooklyn Bridge and manufacturing wire cables for the Golden Gate Bridge.
The location previously had a bridge that featured a vehicle crossing with 1856 covered wooden spans and a 1904 steel-truss section, which closed due to wood decay in 1944.
