Crosses Delaware River Opened 25 May 1956 Total length 2,058 m Body of water Delaware River | Other name(s) Delaware River Bridge Construction started 15 January 1954 Location Bristol Township | |
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Carries 4 lanes of
I‑95 (currently on NJ side only) / I‑276 (currently on PA side only) Locale Bristol Township, Pennsylvania and
Burlington Township, New Jersey Official name Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge Maintained by Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and New Jersey Turnpike Authority Bridge type Continuous truss bridge, Truss bridge Similar Burlington–Bristol Bridge, Delaware Memorial Bridge, Benjamin Franklin Bridge, Betsy Ross Bridge, Walt Whitman Bridge | ||
The Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge is a four-lane steel arch-shaped continuous truss bridge that connects the Pennsylvania Turnpike's East-West Mainline with the main trunk of the New Jersey Turnpike, via the Pearl Harbor Memorial Extension (formerly known as the Pennsylvania Extension). The bridge crosses the Delaware River, connecting Bristol Township, Pennsylvania and Burlington Township, New Jersey. The bridge was closed to traffic on January 20, 2017, with a crack having been found in a steel truss.
Contents
History
The bridge was built by both the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) when the PTC completed the "Delaware River Extension" of the Pennsylvania Turnpike between Valley Forge and Bristol Township in 1955, while the NJTA built the 118-mile (190 km) NJ Turnpike between Penns Grove and Ridgefield Park between 1950 and 1952. While the Pennsylvania Turnpike itself predates its New Jersey counterpart by over 10 years (the original Irwin-Carlisle section opened in 1940), the expansion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a cross-state highway was put on hold for the duration of World War II.
Starting with the upsurge of automobile traffic in 1946, the Pennsylvania Turnpike expanded from the original 110-mile (180 km) highway west from Irwin to the Ohio border and east from Carlisle to Valley Forge. At the same time, New Jersey, lacking a high-speed corridor, undertook the building of the New Jersey Turnpike under the auspices of then-Governor of New Jersey Alfred E. Driscoll. In order to provide a high-speed, low-interruption route from New York City to the Midwest, both the PTC and the NJTA undertook the building of the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge (known locally as the "Turnpike Connector Bridge") to connect the two highways. A local AAA chapter spearheaded a failed effort to have the bridge named after William Penn.
To maintain the "high-speed, low-interruption" characteristics ("low interruption" referring to the few stops needed to pay toll or fuel up at the numerous full-service plazas on both routes), the new bridge was designed from the beginning as a high-level crossing. This sharply contrasts with the Tacony–Palmyra Bridge and the Burlington–Bristol Bridge located downstream as they are both drawbridges, and are subject to frequent openings to allow large ships up and down stream (all other bridges downstream from the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge are high level crossings).
Maintenance
In addition, the Turnpike Connector bridge is operated jointly by the PTC and the NJTA, neither of which is subject to the interstate rules and regulations of the other dual-state authorities — Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA); Burlington County Bridge Commission (BCBC); Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA); and the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) — which operate nearly all other bridges across the Delaware River (except for the Dingman's Ferry Bridge, which is privately owned). Each state is responsible for its half of the bridge up to the state line (as evident in a recent redecking project in which the PTC redecked its half of the bridge with fresh concrete first, with the NJTA following later in a separate project).
In 2011, the NJTA and PTC undertook an investigation of the existing suspender system on the main span. Based on destructive testing of suspenders from the similar Newark Bay Bridge, consultants HNTB determined that the Delaware River bridge's suspenders had limited remaining service life and needed to be replaced. At each suspender location, the load from each original 4-inch-diameter (10 cm) wire rope was transferred into a set of four new 2-inch-diameter (5.1 cm) wire ropes, after which the original suspender was cut. The project was completed in August 2013.
2017 Failure
On January 20, 2017, the Delaware River–Turnpike Toll Bridge was closed after a fracture was discovered in a steel component. On February 3, 2017, it was announced that the bridge would remain closed until at least April 2017. The failure was located in a I-beam located approximately 80 ft (24 m) above ground on the Pennsylvania side and caused the bridge to drop by about 1 in (25 mm). Steel plates were installed as a temporary patch to stabilize the bridge and prevent further movement. The Assistant Chief Engineer for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission stated that ..."the crack likely was caused by a combination of factors, including age and plug welds that were commonly used in the 1950s to fill mistakenly drilled holes."
Future construction
The final component of the direct interchange project between the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Interstate 95 in Bristol Township is the construction of a second, parallel span of the bridge which will be identical in appearance to the original 1956 span, similar in nature to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. This is necessary due to the increased traffic the bridge is expected to handle due to its pending re-designation as Interstate 95. As of early 2017, the new parallel span is not planned to begin construction until at least 2025.