Officials: Progress being made to reopen Delaware River Bridge
BRISTOL, Pa. (WPVI) -- It's been a week now since the Delaware River Bridge closed for repairs, and officials still have no idea how long the bridge that connects the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes will remain closed.
And that means people say they'll continue to lose money.
"My job, we either have to go out of our way over to Trenton, or we have to go down into Philly. Either way, it's costing us a lot more money in time and gas," said Vic Guerrera of Ivyland.
There no doubt this is frustrating thousands - 42,000 to be exact. That's the number of drivers who use the bridge on a daily basis.
On Friday, Action News got an update in the process to have it reopen.
Eight 80-feet towers will be placed under the bridge.
It needs to be propped up for crews to go on it and work.
We spoke with one of the project's engineers Friday afternoon.
"Eventually what we hope to do is apply some force back into the bridge with jacks, and jack the truss back into place," said Brian Ranck, construction engineering manager.
The towers will be placed underneath the section where the fracture in a truss was found by a crew painting the bridge last week.
That's specifically located in between Palmer and Wood avenues.
Action News spoke with a few neighbors around the bridge Friday, who say they've heard it's so unstable that it might come down. And that certainly is a scary thought. But officials say that's simply not the case.
"The way we have it, we feel it's stable as is without traffic on it," said Ranck.
Turnpike officials say they're hopeful they'll have a timetable for when the bridge will be reopened in about another week.
They say they're still figuring out what caused the truss to split.
"Once we got it repaired. Hopefully we'll be able to put it back into service," said Ranck.
After taking alternative routes, like the much narrower 413 bridge, for a while now, drivers say they wouldn't mind for progress to speed up.
"It's really a mess," said Guerrera.
ALTERNATIVE ROUTES AND MORE INFORMATION:
Pennsylvania motorists heading eastbound to New Jersey should use the following alternative route: Exit at the Bensalem Interchange, #351 in Bucks County. Follow U.S. Route 1 north, to I-95 north, to I-295, south, to I-195 east. Take Exit 6 on I-195, and reenter the NJ Turnpike.
Alternatives routes for New Jersey motorists headed to Pennsylvania include Interstate 78, Interstate 295 and the Burlington-Bristol Bridge.
For more information, Pennsylvania motorists can call 866-976-TRIP or 800-331-3414, or download the TRIPTalk app.
New Jersey motorists are encouraged to download the SafeTripNJ app or call 511 for more information.
