FRENCHTOWN, NJ – The Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Toll-Supported Bridge is expected to reopen to two-way traffic during late afternoon Friday and remain open through the weekend, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) announced today.
The reopening, however, will be temporary. Beginning Monday, Oct. 20, and continuing through Friday, Oct. 24, the bridge is scheduled to be shut down to all vehicular traffic during off-peak daytime hours – 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. This schedule will allow the bridge to reopen to two-way travel during morning and evening peak commuting times and during overnight periods.
Detours
The signed traffic detour during next week’s daytime bridge closures will direct motorists to use the Upper Black Eddy-Milford Toll-Supported Bridge 3.3 miles upstream. The Commission urges motorists to plan ahead by allowing additional time to reach their destinations when the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown crossing is closed to traffic.
Work status for this week and next
A series of tasks need to be completed before the bridge can be reopened to two-way traffic later this week. Notably, workers need to complete the installation of new railings on each side of the bridge’s roadway deck. The railings protect the bridge’s steel trusses from vehicular collisions. Electrical and lighting work also will be carried out this week, but is not integral to the resumption of two-way traffic.
During the following week’s daytime traffic shutdowns, attention will shift to the bridge’s approaches in Frenchtown, N.J. and Uhlerstown, PA. Workers will install new guide rails at each end of the bridge, replace expansion joints, apply a new overlay surface to the concrete transitions at each bridge entrance, and mill and repave the bridge’s asphalt roadway approaches. These remaining tasks are being executed during daytime hours because they are too noise-intensive to be conducted during overnight periods.
The bridge has been undergoing a comprehensive rehabilitation since early this year. To carry out the project, the bridge has been closed to Pennsylvania-bound traffic on a 24/7 basis since Feb. 20. The bridge, which turned 94 years old on Friday, Oct. 10, was last rehabilitated in 2001.
If weather cooperates and all goes according to plan, the need for project-related traffic detours should be over once the daytime bridge closures end Friday afternoon, Oct. 24. Only periodic alternating single-lane travel restrictions should be needed to close out the project later in the fall.
