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Road Work Closes Ramp From Spring Garden Street To WB Schuylkill Expressway

By Mark Abrams

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A traffic ramp used by tens of thousands of drivers daily to get from Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia onto the westbound Schuylkill Expressway is being closed today for more than two months for reconstruction work.

PennDOT's Charles Metzger says the ramp located right by the Philadelphia Museum of Art is being shut down today.

"Our contractor will be widening the ramp by six feet to improve the turning radius for large trucks and buses which use the ramp," he says, "but also helping to enhance traffic flow on Spring Garden Street."

Traffic in that area already is restricted to one lane in each direction because of construction work being done on the bridges over the Schuylkill Expressway, Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, the Schuylkill River and the Schuylkill River Trail.

Large trucks over 30 feet already are prohibited on Spring Garden Street because of that construction.

Metzger says while the westbound traffic ramp is closed, drivers will be detoured to 33rd Street, Mantua Avenue, 34th Street and to Girard Avenue to access the Girard Avenue ramp to the westbound Schuylkill Expressway.

He says the ramp is set to reopen sometime in late November.

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