Construction Updates

Southbound Deck Removal Continues

Working behind concrete barrier that separates two lanes of southbound traffic from the work area, crews have dismantled the parapets and are removing sections of the old concrete deck from the outside half of the I-476 Bridge over the Schuylkill River (Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge). The work is the third phase of a four-phase, $47.7 million project to rehabilitate and re-deck the twin northbound and southbound bridges.

Crews are saw-cutting the old southbound deck into smaller slabs that may be broken up and trucked from the bridge. As the old deck is removed, exposing the bridge’s structural components, workers are cleaning, repairing or replacing deteriorated steel components and constructing sections of new bridge deck, working from the center of the bridge out in both directions.

Three lanes of the northbound I-476 bridge traffic has been shifted to the right, and concrete barrier has been set along the outside edge of the northbound left lane to create a southbound “express lane" lane on the rehabilitated northbound bridge. That “express lane” is being extended in both directions from the river as part of the project to rebuild 3.5 miles of I-476 between Exit 20 and Exit 16. Read about that project here.

PennDOT began construction to rehabilitate the bridges last March (2009), refurbishing and re-decking the northbound span in two stages. Once the outside half of the southbound bridge is completed, the traffic pattern will flip so that the inside half of the bridge can be completed under stage four. The project is scheduled to finish in December 2010.

Motorists are reminded to slow to the posted 45 MPH speed limit and remain alert for shifting traffic patterns in the work zone.
 

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