FRENCHTOWN, NJ – The installation of a newly widened walkway on the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Toll-Supported Bridge is nearing completion and could open as early as Wednesday, August 27, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced today.
“If the walkway can’t be opened for the public’s use on August 27, it will certainly be operational a day or two after that,” said DRJTBC Executive Director Joseph J. Resta. “Our goal was to get the walkway back online in time for Frenchtown’s annual Riverfest street fare. If the weather forecasts hold true, it’s looking like the project contractor will be able to meet that target date.”
The bridge’s new walkway facility will consist of widened system of slip-resistant foam-core fiber-reinforced-polymer (FRP) panels and new anodized aluminum hand railings. The new walking surface will be 5-feet wide, 1-foot-3-inches wider than the old walkway. This additional width is expected to help pedestrians walking in opposite directions to pass each other on the walkway. It also should ease passage of cyclists walking their bicycles across the walkway – a Commission requirement.
The bridge’s prior concrete-filled steel-grid walkway was shut down for removal and replacement on March 17. That old walkway held the distinction as second narrowest pedestrian facility in the Commission’s bridge system.
The installation of a new walkway system is just one aspect of a wide-ranging rehabilitation project that has been underway at the 93-year-old bridge since earlier this year. Project work activities passed the halfway point in June. To carry out the project, the bridge’s vehicular roadway deck has been restricted to a single lane of New Jersey-bound traffic since Feb. 20, with Pennsylvania-bound traffic detoured upstream to the nearby Upper Black Eddy-Milford Toll-Supported Bridge. If weather cooperates and project work continues as scheduled, the bridge should be in position to reopen to two-traffic in the early fall.
