South Philly drivers, brace yourselves for some nighttime traffic snarls on I-95 this week. PennDOT is rolling up its sleeves to dive into a $37.4 million bridge repair project set to unfurl across 27 bridges in the city. Aimed at keeping these critical structures in shipshape, they’re planning to shore up the safety and keep the wheels turning on this vital corridor.
Wednesday and Thursday night, those cruising down southbound I-95 between Christian Street and Wolf Street should be ready to tap the brakes. A single lane will start to close up at 9 PM, followed by a double whammy closure hitting at midnight all the way through to 5 AM, so be prepared to possibly get stuck in a jam. Word to the wise from PennDOT—give yourself a buffer time-wise when hitting this stretch.
The deck joint repair is just the tip of the iceberg under this hefty contract. There’s a laundry list of fixes on the docket, from mending weary bridge decks and fatigued superstructure components to fortifying portions of substructure that have seen better days. PennDOT’s contractor is set to weld up the cracks, swap out old expansion joints, and give steel sign supports a facelift.
And it doesn't stop with the bridges themselves, either. Under this gritty revamp, a whopping 11 steel behemoths holding up signs over the highway are getting a new coat of paint, and dingy old roadway lighting is going to get swapped out to some snazzy LED luminaires to brighten up your commute. IEW Construction Group Inc. out of Hamilton, N.J. has been handed the reins on this project, according to PennDOT.
