Scotch Plains Receives $626,010 in Federal Funding to Restore Covered Bridge

SCOTCH PLAINS – February 8, 2023  – Since 1963, the Tempe Covered Footbridge has been the option for children to safely walk to school or for residents to visit Frazee House Park on Raritan Road.

But the wooden bridge at Clover Lane has fallen into disrepair, deemed unsafe and closed to the public in 2019.

Township officials have been eager to repair the span, but needed outside financial resources. Local leaders turned to former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7^th Dist.), who visited the sinking bridge on Feb. 24, 2022 and made the funding request while serving in Congress last year.

In response, the federal government has earmarked $626,010 to cover the entire cost of the renovation to the footbridge – the one and only in Union County – in the fiscal 2023 budget.

“Scotch Plains is actively working to secure safer routes to schools and other public areas,” said Mayor Josh Losardo. “Because of the covered bridge’s steady deterioration over the years, school children, senior citizens and other residents living in the area lack a safe route to reach area schools and our historic Frazee House Park. We aggressively sought this federal funding to improve walkability, recreation and access to public services in that neighborhood.”

The footbridge was needed in the early 1960s because school children on Donsen Lane did not have easy access to school buses. They would then cross over a stream, resulting in plenty of wet shoes throughout the school day, to reach a bus stop on Terrill Road.

Some students opted to walk on Raritan Road, which is narrow, has no sidewalks and has a dangerous “S” curve, to reach such destinations as Terrill Middle School and the Union County Vocational-Technical High School.

After the bridge was constructed in 1963, an Elizabeth-based developer known as Tempe Estates subdivided the land that became Clover Lane and built the first house in 1966, generating plenty of use of the bridge over the years.

The bridge, with a covered truss system, became a popular route for residents to reach the former Terry Lou Zoo, which is now home to the Aunty Betty Frazee house (a nationally-designated historic site), the Scotch Plains Community Garden, walking trails and a COVID-19 Tree Memorial.

Municipal Manager Al Mirabella said the majority of the federal funding will be used to construct a prefabricated bridge and then install it. The federal government has agreed to pay for all components of the project, such as demolition, a geotechnical investigation, site plan work, surveying, design and state permitting.  There will also be stability measures to prevent erosion.

It is anticipated the project will take a year to complete.