On May 31, we reported that a horse fell through a multi-use bridge in the Patuxent River State Park and sustained soft tissue damage to its leg. On June 19, another horse fell through a multi-use bridge and sustained soft tissue damage to its leg, this time on the perimeter trail at Rosaryville.
Today, June 22, the Director of the Maryland Park Service (MPS), Angela Crenshaw, responded in writing to an inquiry about bridge safety by saying that her department is “currently reviewing our bridge inspection and maintenance protocols” and that “[a]ll of our trail bridges are engineered and rated to withstand loads of up to 2,000 pounds.” Crenshaw copied the Maryland Horse Council (MHC) on her letter.
Crewnshaw also said that MPS has “scheduled internal meetings with our Engineering and Construction Unit to review our trail bridge plans, determine if there is a specific cause of the problem(s), and . . . develop a course of action for improving inspection and remediation of any issues discovered on trail bridges in the Maryland Park Service.”
Crenshaw acknowledged that this review “will take some time because of the number of bridges that we maintain on our public lands.”
If you have encountered a potentially unsafe bridge on state land you can contact MHC’s Vice President for Land Use, Claire Lacey, at laceyeqs@gmail.com; or the Co-Chair of MHC’s Government Relations Committee, Jane Seigler, at seigler.jane@gmail.com.
You can also report a potentially unsafe bridge to the Maryland Horse Council by clicking on the link below:
