So Ravine Road in East Whiteland, which runs between W. King Rd. and Phoenixville Pike has been closed since March 23rd. The reason it’s closed is because of one of the lovely abandoned railroad structures that dot our land landscape in Chester County.

And every time there’s an issue with an underpass, an overpass or a bridge or a tunnel or anything having to do with what the railroad used to be, municipalities have to figure out what to do when there are problems. I do believe this is what East Whiteland is facing right now.

Engineers are assessing this overpass thing that was built in 1915. It periodically gets hit, periodically sheds pieces of crumbling concrete. There’s nothing running above it now as far as a train and ownership of course is always a question. It used to be part of the West Chester Railroad I do not believe that Immaculata owns it and I really don’t believe that East Whiteland owns it. I think it is straight up abandoned, but now because it’s straight up abandoned and falling apart, who takes care of it??

In my humble opinion, this is where the state and county could be of more assistance.

A couple people I know are digging into this for me. I don’t know if they’ll come up with any answers, but in the meantime, an East Whiteland Township road is closed.

This is not on any historic bridge inventory that I can find although technically it probably is because the dates to 1915. But is it anything special? Can we just take the top off of it so East Whiteland stops having structural issues? But if you take the top off of it, you have to cap the sides and deal with making sure water doesn’t undermine it right?

From HistoricBridges.org;

Bridge Documentation

This bridge is a reinforced concrete slab overpass of short length. It has pipe railings. The date of construction is cast into the side of the superstructure. The superstructure rests on concrete abutments. It is part of the old West Chester Railroad, which is long-abandoned in this section, with this bridge being a rare reminder of what used to be. A preservation group still maintains a different section of this line.

On their 10 point scale of historic value, it’s a one as in 1. So most do not consider it much of a historic asset. I personally like this the least of the three underpasses you go through on this road. I’ve taken lots of photos over the years, but mostly I take photos of the ones down near Phoenixville Pike.

Now many moons ago, Immaculata had a train station on her campus. A few years ago, there was a study to try to recreate it. It’s not happening. I was told that back then by the outgoing general manager of SEPTA before Leslie Richards came in. (Of course, at the time no one believed me. But hello it’s 2025 and it didn’t go anywhere did it? Just more wasted study money.)

This was someone I had known since he had been an engineer fairly high up in septa. He had always been really helpful and responsive to community things. I met him when I had written about the Wayne train station and flooding off of the tracks and a big drainage pipe that had no grate on it- it is so big that kids and dogs could get into etc. He had read what I had written and in the end the Wayne train station in Radnor Township got some much needed stormwater management underneath the parking lot when they redid it. And then a simple yet effective grate was placed over a concrete drainage tube on the Pennsylvania Avenue side, which of course dissuaded dogs and kids.

And before COVID when I asked about a station again at Immaculata he told me that realistically, we weren’t going to see a train station revived at Immaculata because there was one in Malvern and it was already taking long enough to get past Malvern to the stations west of Malvern . Then there was the fact that Immaculata didn’t really want a train station with the public parking on their campus for that, because hello it poses a safety concern, doesn’t it? I thought maybe since they put the money into the study they would look at oh I don’t know putting a train station somewhere over around 3 Tun Rd., but nothing ever happened and then Covid happened.

Now this Ravine Road underpass/railroad bridge or whatever I believe, belongs to exactly no one. And what that means realistically is getting it dealt with is going to be a monumental pain in the ass for East Whiteland. I think it would behoove Chester County and the state to help them out with this.

So until it gets figured out the road is closed. You may not use Ravine Road in East Whiteland.

And as I have said multiple times before, not just in this post, there are structures like this all over our region and they need to be better documented. And I get really tired of the abandoned of it all when there are existing railroads which could help us with the costs of dealing with these things.

And having to do with the April Fool’s at all? There are so many gullible people. Where do you think I’m going?

Byee!