"Why it's taking so long." Douglass Township Supervisors Chairman Josh Stouch told a June 2026 meeting that he gets "beat up about that more than anything else." He was talking about the County Line Road bridge over Swamp Creek, which has been closed since April 2025. The Pottstown Mercury's Evan Brandt reported the exchange, and anyone who has driven the detour for the past eighteen months will recognize the question.
The answer has changed since then, and it's more specific than "government is slow." The township has secured the funding, picked a design and hired a builder, so none of those is what's holding up the reopening. When the contract was awarded on September 8, the remaining step was environmental approvals, which have to come through before the construction schedule can be set. Once that schedule starts, it takes about 90 days. That's why the December 2026 date you may have heard is best treated as an estimate from last spring, not a promise.
Eighteen months in a table
Here's the public record so far, in order.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| April 16, 2025 | Township closes the bridge to all traffic "indefinitely" over structural deficiencies and posts a 1.7-mile detour |
| May 27, 2026 | Township newsletter announces DVRPC and PennDOT grant funding and projects a reopening "by December 2026" |
| June 2026 | Township engineer says the permit needs updating and DEP needs an endangered-species form tied to bats |
| July 6, 2026 | Supervisors approve bid documents; bids advertised July 10, opened July 29 |
| September 8, 2026 | Supervisors award the $1,595,792 contract to Richard E. Pierson, with timing "contingent on weather and DEP approvals" |
The first year of that gap went to engineering and funding. When the township closed the bridge, its closure notice said it was "in the process of engineering and seeking funding for a complete bridge replacement" and that "a timeline for completion cannot be determined at this time." A bridge closed for structural problems with no money set aside for a replacement doesn't come back quickly, and this one is owned by the township, not by PennDOT.
What's already settled
By late spring 2026 the township had the money. The Spring/Summer 2026 newsletter says the replacement is funded through two grants. One comes from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission's Retro-Reimbursement Grant Program and the other from PennDOT's Multimodal Transportation Fund.
The design is chosen too. The old span will be replaced with a modern prefabricated concrete bridge, delivered through a design-build method so design and construction can overlap. The newsletter says the prefabricated system "was selected to minimize construction time and reduce impacts to motorists and surrounding neighborhoods."
The builder is hired. On September 8, 2026, the Board of Supervisors awarded the contract to Richard E. Pierson at a low bid of $1,595,792. Pennoni Associates had recommended the bid, and Allison Lee of Pennoni told the board that four bids came in. Chairman Josh Stouch made the motion and Vice Chairman Don Bergstresser seconded it, according to a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting.
That leaves the one remaining step the township doesn't fully control.
Why bats are on the schedule
In June, Township Engineer Khal Hassan explained what had pushed back a start that officials once expected to be underway already. "We had a site meeting with PennDOT and DEP (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), and we thought we were ready to go, but it turns out we have to update the permit, which is outdated," he said, as the Mercury reported.
PennDOT had signed off by then. DEP needed one more form, covering endangered species that construction could affect. "Usually, it's something like bog turtles or maybe bald eagles," Hassan said. "But in this case, it's bats. Apparently, there are bats living under some of the bridges."
According to the Mercury, the township has to study whether any bats live in the crevices under the bridge. Hassan said officials didn't think any did. He also said that if any turned up, "that will be another call to DEP." By the July 6 special meeting, a Citizen Portal summary reported Hassan saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now required bat-habitat testing, even though an earlier environmental screening had already been done.
The township didn't wait on the review to keep the project moving. It advertised for bids and awarded the contract while the review was still pending. But the September award carried a condition. The board's record says "Construction timing contingent on weather and DEP approvals," and its next step was a pre-construction meeting "to establish schedule and erosion control measures." As of the September 8 meeting, there was no published start date.
Working out December
The township's own numbers make the timing easy to check. The spring newsletter says construction is "expected to take approximately 90 days once work begins." That projection came out in late May, before Hassan said the permit was outdated, before the bat testing was required, and before bids went out.
Ninety days back from the end of December puts the latest start for that target at about the beginning of October. Today is October 8. If crews mobilized this week, 90 days would run to about early January 2027. The award record also ties timing to the weather, and a build that starts in fall runs into winter.
None of this means the bridge won't open soon. It means the reopening date now depends on when the 90 days start, and that depends on DEP approvals and the pre-construction meeting. Neither had a published date as of the September 8 meeting. No public update since then reports the result of the bat review.
The detour, for now
Until a change is announced, the detour is the one the township posted on April 16, 2025. It's a 1.7-mile loop on Swamp Creek Road, Montgomery Avenue and Route 100. The road is closed just south of its intersection with Swamp Creek Road, according to a Mercury photo caption.
The closure notice says emergency services in both Montgomery and Berks counties were told about it and "adjusted emergency response plans accordingly." The newsletter lists reliable access "for residents and emergency responders" as one reason for the replacement.
What to watch for next
Each of these, once it happens, tells you more than the December estimate does:
- DEP clearance. Watch for news that the bat-habitat review is finished and what it found. If the study finds no bats, the last open permit question is answered. If it finds bats, Hassan has already said that means another call to DEP.
- The pre-construction meeting. The board's September record says this meeting is where the schedule gets set. A start date announced after it is the first firm date this project will have.
- A notice that work has started. That starts the township's roughly 90-day estimate, with weather as a variable.
- A detour change. The posted route ends when the bridge reopens.
The township posts minutes and agendas on its meetings page, and bridge updates have been coming up at regular Board of Supervisors meetings. As of early October, the board had met on September 21 and October 5, but the September 21 minutes are a scanned file and the October 5 minutes weren't posted yet, so neither has been checked for bridge news. The township's Public Works Department, based at 108 Municipal Drive in Gilbertsville, takes service requests at 610-367-0984.
Glen grew up in Limerick and serves as a Limerick Fire Department Deputy Chief, so our team watches how a road closure affects response routes as closely as commute times. If you live near County Line Road and want to talk through how the closure or the eventual reopening might affect your plans, The Glen Russell Team is glad to share what we're seeing locally. Contact us anytime.
