Crumbling South Street Bridge Will Close in December for Two-Year Rebuild

 

by KYW's Mike Dunn

Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter has announced the starting date for the much anticipated -- and dreaded -- South Street Bridge reconstruction project.  And it's not far off.

The mayor said on Monday that the demolition of the 85-year-old bridge will begin in just a few weeks, in December.  Nutter said a specific date was still being determined.

And once that work begins, the South Street Bridge -- which connects center city with University City across the Schuylkill River -- will be closed in both directions for upwards of two years.

And Nutter says rebuilding the bridge is way overdue:

"This project could literally be the poster child for what happens when we don't invest in our infrastructure -- it creates danger, it takes a long time to fix, and of course the costs grow exponentially over time."

In fact, planning for this project has gone on for so long that the cost since 1995 has doubled.

The project had been delayed in part because of community opposition to the original design, which some felt did not take pedestrians or bicyclists into account.  Jim Campbell of the South Street Bridge Coalition is thrilled with revisions made during the Nutter administration:
 
"...just making it better for everybody, better for pedestrians, better for bicyclists, better for drivers who are going across the bridge."

But don't expect the end result to include better ramps to the Schuylkill Expressway.

Even traffic engineers admit that the ramps that lead from the South Street bridge onto the Schuylkill Expressway are the worst -- you merge into the faster (lefthand) lane, and you can't see traffic until just before you merge. 

But at the news conference announcing the South Street bridge renovation, PennDOT administrator Les Toaso said those ramps will not be changed as part of this project -- but perhaps in a later effort:

"To take those and reconfigure those at South Street is going to involve actually going from University Avenue back to 30th Street Station, and you have to redesign the main corridor and all those ramps there.  So we're looking at it, but we're looking at it in the long run."

Toasa estimated the cost of reconfiguring those ramps at $60-70 million, which is coincidentally the approximate cost of rebuilding the South Street bridge in its entirety.

The $67-million reconstruction of the aging and crumbling bridge is being paid for mostly with federal money, although there are also state and city contributions. 

When the bridge closes, the 23,000 drivers who use the South Street Bridge daily are being urged to avoid coming into town by car and to carpool or take Septa instead, since the alternate routes to and from West Philadelphia -- the Chestnut and Walnut Street bridges -- are expected to become immediately jammed.

At the same time, pedestrians may be walking many extra blocks to cross the Schuylkill River.

(File photo of South Street bridge inspection by KYW's Tony Hanson)