(CBS) - PennDOT says heavy trucks and tractor trailers won’t be able to use a key bridge along Route 291 in Delaware County because of problems with the support structures.

PennDOT’s Gene Blaum says the weight limit on the eastbound Route 291 bridge over Crum Creek in Ridley Township has been cut in half from 30 tons to 15 tons as a result of a recent inspection by engineers:

“It’s because of the continued deterioration of the structure that we’re removing the heavier loads so that the bridge will be under less stress and that this will now give us time to get a project into design very quickly and into construction. We expect this winter to replace the bridge deck and the beams on the entire structure.”

Blaum says that means tractor trailers and other heavy trucks, possibly heading for the Boeing complex and other businesses in that industrial complex, must use Interstate 95 as an alternate.

Blaum says emergency vehicles such as fire trucks and ambulances, school buses and small trucks will still be able to use the bridge.

He says the westbound Route 291 bridge over the creek is unaffected because it’s held up by separate support structures

Reported by: Mark Abrams, KYW Newsradio