by KYW's Pat Loeb

On Monday morning, drivers were noticing a lot of activity on the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Workers were beginning the final phase of bridge painting and they were doing it without any lane closures.

The steel painting project has been going on for nine years and this week, it enters its final phase. Bill Brooks, chief engineer for the Delaware River Port Authority, says the $90 million project is different from routine bridge painting:

"You just can't keep putting more and more coats of paint on top of what's there. There's 25 or more coats of paint from over the years so you really need to remove all of the paint that's there, down to bare metal, and apply new paint to preserve the steel."

Brooks says the new coating on the bridge will last about 12 to 15 years, which means once this phase is done next year, the DRPA will have about two years before it starts repainting.

(Photo by KYW's John Ostapkovich)