Bridge game: Municipality open for bids

Upper Salford puts railroad trestle bridge up for online auction. No longer able to carry car traffic, the bridge may be useful on a farm.

A Montgomery County township is taking a modern approach to getting rid of a heavy-duty wooden railroad trestle bridge: auctioning it online.

“Somebody out there may have a use for the bridge even though it can’t carry car traffic anymore,” said Ted Poatsy, chairman of the Upper Salford board of supervisors.

“They may have specific uses on a farm … it’s a good bridge. There’s some great timbers to it and it probably has some value,” said Postsy.

“It would cost us money to get rid of the bridge, so, instead of having us pay to have somebody take the bridge down, we are bidding it out so somebody will buy the bridge and the lumbers and take the bridge down for nothing.”

Officials are selling the bridge through a website called municibid that allows the general public bid on government surplus.

Poatsy said offering the bridge for sale on the web gives the township access to a wide audience of potential bidders.