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Busy Montco Bridge Reopens Months After Sudden Shutdown

By Ian Bush

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) - It's been five months of detours for drivers in Plymouth Township, Montgomery County, where a busy bridge had to be closed because of severe structural damage.

Now, the Plymouth Road Bridge is open again, ahead of schedule.

A '63 Chevy Impala was the first vehicle to test the reconstructed span over Plymouth Creek since it was barricaded on March 12th.

 

"We unexpectedly found multiple sinkholes under this bridge, so we had to close it immediately," says State transportation secretary Leslie Richards.

She says contractors from Loftus Construction in Cinnaminson, New Jersey stabilized the ground with deep injections of cement grout, and built a concrete and steel foundation:

"We put in micropiles to make sure that the bridge is connected to the bedrock and it's on a very sound structure now."

Richards says without this bridge, it was putting a lot of stress on some other already well-traveled roads:

"This bridge alone sees well over 15,000 cars a day, and they were then going on already-busy roadways -- such as Ridge Pike, Butler Pike, and Germantown Pike. So getting this bridge open, particularly before school starts, was big for this region."

 

plymouth road bridge 1
The Plymouth Road Bridge reopened Thursday. (Credit: Ian Bush)

 

And it was big for drivers who no longer have to go out of their way to head to the Plymouth Meeting Mall, the Blue Route or Turnpike, or anywhere else this Plymouth Road Bridge is once again able to take them.

Reopening ahead of schedule is a relief for the thousands of daily drivers -- including Richards, who lives nearby.  But what about accusations of special treatment from those who don't have the PennDOT boss for a neighbor, and are dealing with their own road woes?

"Sinkholes are an emergency," she says. " They have to be dealt with, and they have to be dealt with right away."

Or else, she says, everything from the homes nearby to the major highways around the bridge could have suffered a similar fate.

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