A covered bridge in the Little Gap section of Lower Towamensing Township will be closed one day next week for repairs, Carbon County commissioners announced Thursday.

Commissioner Rocky Ahner said the county-owned bridge will be closed Wednesday, likely from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., to allow crews to make repairs to a crash bar that was installed to protect the historic span.

“The bridge will be closed. It will only be for local traffic,” he said. “We apologize for any inconvenience, but that’s what happens when somebody hits our crash bar and it has to be fixed.”

The crash bars, or steel I-beams, were installed to prevent vehicles from hitting the bridge, which has a low clearance. The bridge has been damaged numerous times by drivers ignoring the posted height restrictions for the historic structure.

The latest repair is expected to cost approximately $19,000, Ahner said.

He again apologized for the inconvenience, acknowledging that the repairs will take all day.

“Hopefully, everything will be back in order by Thursday,” Ahner said.

Beltzville bridge

On Thursday, the commissioners moved on more than $650,000 grant to rehabilitate a bridge on Pohopoco Drive crossing over Pine Run and Beltzville Lake.

The commissioners ratified a grant application to the state Department of Community and Economic Development’s Multimodal Transportation Fund grant program.

The commissioners also sought a waiver of the match required for the $665,153 grant.

In 2025, the county received $600,000 from the same program, but no one seems to know where the funding is, Ahner said before the meeting.

“I don’t know where it is,” he said. “We had a meeting with PennDOT. They don’t know where it is. The financial guy doesn’t even have a record.

“How can you tell me you allocated $1,113,000 for the Beltzville bridge, and you don’t know where it is?” Ahner asked.

He also expressed frustration with the Metropolitan Planning Organization serving Monroe, Carbon, Pike and Wayne counties, which he serves on, as the last two meetings to decide on future road and bridge project have been canceled, he said.

“I have four bridges to go on the TIP (Transportation Improvement Program) to get fixed. They took them off,” Ahner said. “They put two of our bridges that are in East Penn on the TIP to get repaired, not the four we asked for.”

He doesn’t know who is making the decisions on these projects, but the county is losing money, Ahner said.