PennDOT to Start $33.5 Million Rehabilitation of Passyunk Avenue Drawbridge in Philadelphia

PennDOT to Start $33.5 Million Rehabilitation of Passyunk Avenue Drawbridge
in Philadelphia

3/28/2016-KING OF PRUSSIA

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will begin construction
Tuesday,
March 29, on a two-year, $33.5 million project to rehabilitate and improve
the
Passyunk Avenue drawbridge over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

The 33-year-old drawbridge will undergo construction to enhance its
mechanical
operation and structural condition. PennDOT's contractor will upgrade the
drawbridge by rehabilitating the motors, brakes, locks and gears, plus the
electrical power, controls, traffic control systems and gates.

Construction crews also will repair and paint structural steel, replace
deteriorated concrete, overlay the bridge deck with latex concrete, replace

expansion joints, reset rocker bearings, repair pedestrian railings, and
clean
and repair the drainage systems.

Initially, the contractor will work Tuesday, March 29, to Friday, April 1,
from
7:00 PM to 5:00 AM to repair drainage pipes on the bridge. This operation
will
require closing the eastbound and westbound right travel lanes on Passyunk
Avenue between 28th Street and 61st Street.

On Monday, April 4, crews will work from 7:00 PM to 5:00 AM the following
morning to build crossover lanes at the approaches to structure and to
shift
two lanes of eastbound and westbound traffic away from the center of the
bridge. The Passyunk Avenue drawbridge will be restricted to two lanes in
each
direction through mid-June while crews work in the median to replace
expansion
joints and resurface a portion of the deteriorated bridge deck.

During later stages of construction, the drawbridge will be restricted to
two
westbound lanes and one eastbound lane.

Currently, the drawbridge carries three westbound and three eastbound
travel
lanes, and two sidewalks. At the end of construction, the bridge will carry
two
westbound and two eastbound travel lanes, two sidewalks, and two
13-foot-wide
shoulders. The reduction in travel lanes resulted from a joint study with
the
City of Philadelphia, which determined that two travel lanes in each
direction
on the drawbridge would be more consistent with the Passyunk Avenue
corridor.

The Passyunk Avenue drawbridge was built in 1983. The steel-girder bridge
has
18-spans, including the one-span drawbridge section. The bridge is 2,240
feet
long and 92 feet wide. It carries an average of 20,800 vehicles a day.

Buckley and Company Inc., of Philadelphia, is the general contractor on the

$33,527,470 project. Construction is expected to finish in late 2018. The
project is financed with 80 percent federal and 20 percent state funds.

Motorists can check conditions on more than 40,000 roadway miles by
visiting
www.511PA.com. 511PA, which is free and available 24 hours a day, provides
traffic delay warnings, weather forecasts, traffic speed information and
access
to more than 770 traffic cameras.

511PA is also available through a smartphone application for iPhone and
Android
devices, by calling 5-1-1, or by following regional Twitter alerts
accessible
on the 511PA website.

For more PennDOT information, visit www.penndot.gov. Follow Local PennDOT
Information on Twitter at www.twitter.com/511PAPhilly, and follow the
department on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/pennsylvaniadepartmentoftransportation and Instagram at
www.instagram.com/pennsylvaniadot.

MEDIA CONTACT: Charles Metzger, 610-205-6801

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