For several weeks, our team has worked on the old railroad bridge restoration for The Karl Stirner Arts Trail (KSAT) expansion. At the time this report was written, KSAT’s Board hoped to add about half a mile to the trail on the other side of the river extending up towards the Public Safety office of Lafayette College. This additional trail would be connected to the current trail by this bridge located between the Simon Silk Mill and Lynn’s Auto Repair Shop. This project is apart of the Bushkill Corridor Safety Enhancements Project, which has already received $1.3 million in state grants for these efforts. Since so much of the trail is cruxed upon this revitalization of the bridge, it stands to be prioritized in this budget. Overall, things are looking very optimistic for this project which will be spearheaded by KSAT, as well as Lafayette College. These two entities already have a very close relationship as there is a committee of professors that work to carry forth the mission of the trail, as well as two professors that hold chair positions on the official board.
The bridge is not currently pedestrian friendly as it is covered in debris, has rotting wood, lacks railings, and is blocked off by a barrier on either end. However, it is structurally stable. Our minimal objective is to have a safe and walkable bridge that can be utilized by the community. However, our team wants it to be more than just a functional bridge and to be integrated within the trail and the greater Easton community.
While doing research for this project on how to successfully integrate these aspects of the city, our team delved into the historical context of Easton in an effort to understand how this city came to be in hopes of including that into the story that the art on this bridge will depict. We believe that it is important to use this bridge as a way of showing homage to the industrial heritage of the area, namely the steel, rope, and silk industries, as well as the Lenape tribe that resided here from the very beginning. This bridge would be a great means of informing the community about the history of Easton. We have used information to come up with several design ideas for railings, flooring, and roof designs that incorporate elements from each of these different historical and industrial groups. These costs, not including labor or art work, totaled to $89,462 after the completion of our initial economic analysis our group conducted.
Looking forward, there are a number of positives about the trail expansion as a whole that will most certainly benefit the restoration of this bridge, including the extensive funding from the state and the assured stability of the preexisting trestle bridge system. Within each context, social, political, technical, and economic, there is ample possibility for further detailing, customization, and creativity. This should make this project a hopeful favorite among future Engineering Studies capstone groups that seek to explore intersections with art.
Considering next steps for this project, several decisions need to be made by the KSAT Board of Directors — the results of which will condition the design constraints for the bridge addition. Namely: whether the bridge is an artwork, an enclosed exhibition space, or some other hybrid; whether the bridge will have a roof, stylized railings, and artistic flooring; whether to depict the culturally significant materials or actually use them. These decisions, once made, will limit the design scope of forthcoming project continuations. From there, teams will need to carefully consider the physical constraints of the bridge’s structure and relevant legislative policy while designing within that to-be-decided scope. The design of the restorative addition should be grounded in the social context, while the technical elements of the bridge’s design should be based on findings from the 2016 Civil Engineering Capstone Final Report. The economics of the bridge are straightforward as the choice of materials should unfold naturally with decided design scope, and the main economic challenge of securing funding has already been surmounted with the state grant. Decisions from the Karl Stirner Arts Trail Board of Directors will determine the scale and artistic intensity of future work on this project.
When developing the design, it is important to recognize this project’s strong link to the social context. Not only should the design respect the community’s cultural heritage of industry, artistry, and peaceful stewardship, but it should also represent an engagement with the community as it currently exists. Future teams may want to conduct public polls to see what the community would like to see in a welcoming gateway into the arts trail, or their general expectations for the trail expansion. If the bridge does become an exhibition space, it could be a wonderful opportunity to have regular, continual engagement with the community through events celebrating the opening of a new featured artist or series. The potential of weatherproofing for that space could allow for a greater variety of artists to be featured on the trail and subsequently enrich the public sphere. The public could also be allowed to participate in the selection process for artists featured in the possible mini-gallery, making the viewing experience and artistic enrichment all the more meaningful and wholesome. Community engagement is of crucial import to students of Engineering Studies, and this project and resulting bridge should exemplify that principle.
We also suggest working with Friends of KSAT throughout the course of this project. They were one of the major contributors to several other successful projects for the trail including the musical playground created. It was with their help and effort that that project was actually able to go so smoothly and so quickly. To recreate a similar project experience we suggest to continue to reach out to this volunteer group.
This bridge is about much more than being a safe, stable walkway; it is the sole focal point connecting the untapped trail potential of the KSAT expansion with the currently existing trail, and it will lead to the beautification of a new pedestrian corridor that could eventually be as rife with history, heritage, and culture as the rest of Easton already is. All that remains between that future and now is a gap to be bridged.