Walkway

In this historic town where William Penn once owned land and where Bucks County judges once held court, residents say the cracking slate sidewalks and loose brick walkways are a venerable badge of old age. For as long as anyone can remember, officials never demanded repairs to the aging walkways - though a law on the books since 1987 allows them to do so. But in these litigious times, members of Borough Council find that they must enforce a...

Faced with higher than expected costs, the group working to turn the USS New Jersey into a floating museum has decided to scale back plans for an extensive shoreside complex that would have included a theater. Outlining an $18.2 million capital budget for Phase I of the project, the Home Port Alliance said yesterday that it would return to its original plan for a more modest visitors center and walkway leading to the ship's T-shaped pier on the Camden waterfront. "We have determined that the original elements as stated in the application to the Navy should be the sole focus of our attention at this time," Pat Jones, the Camden County surrogate and HPA cochairwoman, said in a statement.

As Camden County Parks and Recreation chief Bart Mueller describes it, his son was warned. Almost a dozen years ago, when he was a boy, Bret Mueller went fishing at Haddon Lake for carp. As Mueller recalls it, his son was told to hold on to his fishing pole at all times. If the boy was not careful, a hooked fish might swim off with it. Which, of course, is exactly what happened. "My son was one of many people to lose their fishing poles in that lake," Mueller said recently.

Track supporters here are hoping a Walkway of Champions consisting of individual bricks paid for by supporters will help restore the high school's crumbling track. The Willingboro Track Revitalization Project, a nonprofit group made up of track parents and community members, will soon be selling engraved bricks to help pay for a new track at Willingboro High School's Carl Lewis Stadium. The existing track is in disrepair and was closed because of liability concerns last spring.

Here's the latest strategy to attract tourists to the 60-mile walkway along the Delaware Canal: Put flush toilets on the historic path. They are a basic necessity that has been missing from the trail and one that, placed properly, will entice outdoor enthusiasts to trek the full 60 miles from Bristol to Easton rather than stop halfway, state park officials say. So on Monday, Delaware Canal State Park officials opened two bathrooms to the...

The pedestrian walkway that collapsed at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., was built with material contaminated with calcium chloride, which corroded the steel beams, investigators said yesterday. The testing lab hired by the speedway to investigate Saturday's collapse found high levels of calcium chloride in the concrete slabs on the 320-footlong bridge, said Charles Manning, of Accident Reconstruction Analysts in Raleigh. Saturday night, an 80-foot section collapsed, spilling fans leaving the raceway onto U.S. 29 about 17 feet below.

Fifty-three people remained hospitalized yesterday, including three in critical condition, following the collapse of a pedestrian walkway leading to the parking lots Saturday night at Lowe's Motor Speedway after NASCAR's all-star race. Following two loud cracks, an 80-foot section of the 320-foot concrete-and-steel walkway snapped in half and fell onto the highway outside the Concord, N.C., race track. There were no vehicles on the road. A total of 107 people received medical treatment, a track spokesman said.

The pedestrian walkways on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge have been closed until the end of June because of three work projects on the 74-year-old span. The Delaware River Port Authority said the work would have only a "minimal impact" on vehicle traffic on the toll bridge. Joseph Diemer, a spokesman for the bistate agency, said the DRPA had hoped to keep a walkway open during the work but decided it was impossible with all three projects under way at once. The bridge has two pedestrian walkways, but only one is open at any one time and only during daylight hours.

The state would ante up an additional $7.2 million to help turn the battleship New Jersey into a memorial museum on the Camden waterfront under legislation proposed yesterday. The allocation would bring New Jersey taxpayer support for the dreadnought to $15.2 million. Gov. Whitman has already promised $6 million for the museum, and $2 million was spent on towing "the Big J" from the Navy's mothball fleet in Bremerton, Wash., to Philadelphia. Senate President Donald T. DiFrancesco (R., Union)

Most pedestrian bridges are not built to withstand an impact like the one that knocked down an overpass in Cherry Hill on Tuesday, and no regulations require that much strength, transportation officials and experts said yesterday as an investigation into the accident continued. The 55-ton walkway over Route 38 near the Cherry Hill Mall was torn from its supports and crashed onto the road about 8 a.m. when a garbage truck slammed into it. The truck, driven by James R. Kelley, 43, of Lindenwold, hit the bridge about 35 to 40 m.p.h.