Refurbished South Street Bridge Set To Reopen
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After two years of construction – some of it plagued by problems – Philadelphia's new South Street bridge will open this Saturday.
The old bridge connecting Center City with the University of Pennsylvania campus closed in December 2008 to be torn down and rebuilt. It was falling down and had become a serious hazard for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.
The new bridge has already had a few problems of its own. Eyewitness News showed you in May how brand new concrete support columns were cracking and crumbling. Officials said water got into those columns during the winter, but the general contractor on the project, Driscoll Construction, would fix the problem at no added cost and with no delay.
On Thursday, Mayor Nutter gave Eyewitness News a tour of the bridge to show that it is indeed ready for traffic.
"On time. A month early. On budget, and it will be a spectacular bridge for generations and generations to come," the mayor said. "We have an excellent team that knows how to get projects done."
Officials say as many as 30,000 people used the bridge each day. They have all had to find another way to cross the Schuylkill River and Schuylkill Expressway. The closest bridge is at Walnut Street, several blocks to the north.
The mayor says he knows the closure has been an inconvenience, but he thinks it is well worth it.
"This was a project that frankly languished for 10 years," he said. "We were monitoring this bridge day-by-day."
The new bridge features wider sidewalks and bike lanes, something requested by the community. Those elements had not been included in an original design for the bridge, dating back to 1995.
"I think when the design started back in 1995, they came in basically to build a highway bridge," said Deputy Mayor for transportation Rina Cutler. "There wasn't much thought at that time for sidewalks or bicycle lanes, but the world has changed since then."
Reported By: Ben Simmoneau, CBS 3
