PA Turnpike News

[PHLBOS]

I dislike all breezewoods (I  know, that's a shock, right?) - mostly for reasons of safety (motorists not familiar with the area are not expecting a stoplight or driveways), but also because of congestion and capacity.

Then you probably don't like the I-90 (Mass Pike)/US 20/MA 146 interchange (Exit 10A) which was built during the previous decade.

Wonder if PTC might re-open the ramps at Pepperidge Drive once they have converted to cashless tolling.  Might be a little too close to the "new" interchange at U.S. 222 (Exit 286), but maybe not.

They could probably do cashless 'slip-ramps' but such would require a traffic signal installation at the intersection of Pepperidge Drive and Col. Howard Blvd. (the connector road linking PA 272 to the Turnpike).

[cl94]

I dislike all breezewoods (I  know, that's a shock, right?) - mostly for reasons of safety (motorists not familiar with the area are not expecting a stoplight or driveways), but also because of congestion and capacity.

Then you probably don't like the I-90 (Mass Pike)/US 20/MA 146 interchange (Exit 10A) which was built during the previous decade.

That's a special case. Only way they could really preserve access to US 20. For the uninitiated, US 20 and MA 122A had an interchange where they crossed that was wiped out when 122A was converted from a Jersey freeway to limited-access.

[cpzilliacus]

Philly.com: No word on how long the Delaware River Bridge will be closed

Motorists who typically use the Delaware River Bridge connecting the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Turnpikes should make new driving plans for the foreseeable future, officials urged Tuesday.

It will be at least two weeks before the nature of the bridge repairs is known, and making the fix will take longer, they said. As engineers attempt to diagnose and then repair the crack that forced the bridge's shutdown Friday, commuters likely will continue to experience significant delays on alternative routes.

Joseph Donnelly, Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission spokesman, said Tuesday that Route 1 commuters traveling on the Trenton-Morrisville Bridge saw traffic backed up for about five miles, adding more than 20 minutes to the trip. On the Scudder Falls Bridge, commuters are experiencing delays of about 18 minutes.

[jeffandnicole]

Traffic has adapted quite well.  I think the Burlington-Bristol bridge, US 1 and I-95 received the brunt of the extra traffic, which is understandable, but mostly affecting the PA side of the river.  On NJ 29 North, there has been a very minor increase in traffic approaching the US 1 SB ramp, although no worse than on a regular day if there was an accident or incident on US 1 that'll clog up traffic anyway.  Some co-workers said traffic was bad last Monday; I haven't heard much gripping since.  I'm not hearing anything about those using the Calhoun and Trenton Makes bridges dealing with much more traffic...I didn't expect that much due to their locations and the fact that trucks aren't permitted on those bridges.  Traffic jams are a bit longer on both 95 and 1 approaching the bridges, moreso on 95 I believe because of how narrow that bridge is.

It helps that of the main Delaware River toll bridges, the NJ/PA Turnpike bridge had one of the lowest traffic counts.  Of the multi-lane bridges, only the US 22 bridge carries less traffic.  And because of its central location, without a major city on either side, there's numerous opportunities to disperse traffic throughout the highway system. 

While many people, even on these boards, accuse the NJ Turnpike of trying to keep people on its highway because of the toll revenue, this is a great example of why they don't actually do that.  If they did, they would have kept Interchange 6 open, and forced people to pay the higher toll then send them onto US 130.  Or they would've said the main detour route is Exit 7A, for 195-295-95.  They've openly suggested to traffic coming from the NYC area to use I-78...which is up to about a $7 loss per car and $20 or more per truck, compared to travelling to Exit 6.

It's a bit trickier on the PA side due to the mainline ending...and no connected highway access to other interstates.  We've said many times about the Breezewoods in PA...well, this is both PennDOT and the PTC's issue when it comes to road closures.  Now there's no easy way to route traffic around an issue.  Their delays have suffered a bit longer on their roads, and inconveniences locals a great deal more.  If they would've pushed for the entire I-95 interchange to be connected with the PA Turnpike like they were supposed to do, this issue would've been greatly migrated.  Then again, if traffic could make it to 95 North, the next issue is the I-95 Scudder Falls crossing, which is only 2 lanes per direction with no shoulder and interchanges without accel/decal lanes on either side of the bridge.  The bridge itself is supposed to be widened and replaced, although the sole bid for that project came in 20% above budget.

As for news...it's been pretty quiet.  A story on NJ.com this morning ( http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2017/01/closed_delaware_river_bridge_will_soon_have_80-foo.html ) mentioned the support towers that will need to be built on the PA side before the bridge will be built, but even that is old news.  Since the weekend, other than talking about the traffic detours and restating what's already been said a dozen times, no real news has developed from this story. 

[ixnay]

Traffic has adapted quite well.

Yes.  I thought that part of the Delaware Valley/NYC-Philly corridor was in for an East Coast carmageddon.  Those affected adapted, as you say, quite well.  What helped was the fact that the closure happened on the cusp of a weekend and that those affected had the weekend to prepare for Monday.

ixnay

[jeffandnicole]

Traffic has adapted quite well.

Yes.  I thought that part of the Delaware Valley/NYC-Philly corridor was in for an East Coast carmageddon.  Those affected adapted, as you say, quite well.  What helped was the fact that the closure happened on the cusp of a weekend and that those affected had the weekend to prepare for Monday.

ixnay

In terms of issues, I-95 near Philly was shut down due to a truck fire years ago.  I-80 in NJ has the same fate.  I-495 in Wilmington has a strange tilting issue.  The Delaware Memorial Bridge had a suspension rod issue.  NYC has transit strikes leading to mandatory HOV-4 restrictions on most of their bridges/tunnels.

Honestly, it's just another day around here...

[jeffandnicole]

Article in the Philly Inquirer today shows the repair job where the crack was located, and talks about some of the other bridge issues we have in the region; much of it in PA.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/transportation/delaware-river-bridge-closure-infrastructure-region.html

One bridge shown on the map is located near me.  It's now 125 years old and if you were to look under it you wonder how it is even still standing.  Yet, it's not weight restricted at all.  It is scheduled to be replaced next year I believe.

[jeffandnicole]

Channel 6 in Philly reports the bridge will be closed until at least April.

[MASTERNC]

Channel 6 in Philly reports the bridge will be closed until at least April.

Eight more weeks, per the PTC, which is early April.

https://www.paturnpike.com/press/2017/20170203155951.htm

[jeffandnicole]

Channel 6 in Philly reports the bridge will be closed until at least April.

Eight more weeks, per the PTC, which is early April.

https://www.paturnpike.com/press/2017/20170203155951.htm

I was half joking to myself the NJTA could probably knock the whole thing down and have it rebuilt in the time it'll take to get it fixed. Apparently the idea was on the table!

A Philly.com article today mentioned the stresses the other beams took when the broken one broke, causing them and the deck to twist slightly.  It was probably extremely fortunate work was being done on the bridge in that particular area, as it seems to sound like this bridge wasn't far off from failing completely.

[SignBridge]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

[jeffandnicole]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

That I don't remember, but the I-35 collapse in Minneapolis I do.

[ixnay]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

That I don't remember, but the I-35 collapse in Minneapolis I do.

I remember both.  And wasn't there a bridge collapse on the NYS Thruway west of Schenectady in the late '80s as well?

ixnay

[02 Park Ave]

Ssyes, there was.

[empirestate]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

That I don't remember, but the I-35 collapse in Minneapolis I do.

I remember both.  And wasn't there a bridge collapse on the NYS Thruway west of Schenectady in the late '80s as well?

Yes, although that was a problem with the footings, not the structural members.

[kalvado]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

That I don't remember, but the I-35 collapse in Minneapolis I do.

I remember both.  And wasn't there a bridge collapse on the NYS Thruway west of Schenectady in the late '80s as well?

Yes, although that was a problem with the footings, not the structural members.

Well, there was another fairly close call in Albany as well

[ixnay]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

That I don't remember, but the I-35 collapse in Minneapolis I do.

I remember both.  And wasn't there a bridge collapse on the NYS Thruway west of Schenectady in the late '80s as well?

Yes, although that was a problem with the footings, not the structural members.

Sounds similar to what happened to I-495 in Delaware years later.

ixnay

[cpzilliacus]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

There was also the 1987 total and catastrophic failure of the bridge that carried the I-90 part of the New York State Thruway over Schoharie Creek near Amsterdam, resulting in ten fatalities. This happened after a very heavy rain event in the area (and upstream), that caused the piers of the bridge to be swept away.

NTSB report summary here.  A scanned .pdf copy of the NTSB report can be downloaded off  this page.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the-probable cause of the collapse of the Schoharie Creek Bridge was the failure of the New York State Thruway Authority to maintain adequate riprap around the bridge piers, which led to severe erosion in the soil beneath the spread footings. Contributing to the accident were ambiguous plans and specifications used for construction of the bridge, an inadequate NYSTA bridge inspection program, and inadequate oversight by the New York State Department of. Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the lack of structural redundancy in the bridge.

[slorydn1]

J&N you are so right! And yes we're lucky it was discovered when it was, lest we would have had another Connecticut Tpk. 1983 type disaster if you remember that.

There was also the 1987 total and catastrophic failure of the bridge that carried the I-90 part of the New York State Thruway over Schoharie Creek near Amsterdam, resulting in ten fatalities. This happened after a very heavy rain event in the area (and upstream), that caused the piers of the bridge to be swept away.

NTSB report summary here.  A scanned .pdf copy of the NTSB report can be downloaded off  this page.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the-probable cause of the collapse of the Schoharie Creek Bridge was the failure of the New York State Thruway Authority to maintain adequate riprap around the bridge piers, which led to severe erosion in the soil beneath the spread footings. Contributing to the accident were ambiguous plans and specifications used for construction of the bridge, an inadequate NYSTA bridge inspection program, and inadequate oversight by the New York State Department of. Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the lack of structural redundancy in the bridge.

I remember watching a very informative documentary on this topic on one of the Discovery networks years ago, back when they used to have informative programming.

[ixnay]

There was also the 1987 total and catastrophic failure of the bridge that carried the I-90 part of the New York State Thruway over Schoharie Creek near Amsterdam, resulting in ten fatalities. This happened after a very heavy rain event in the area (and upstream), that caused the piers of the bridge to be swept away.

I believe empirestate and yours truly already mentioned that incident earlier on this page, although with not nearly as much detail (detail for which we thank you, cpzilliacus).

ixnay

[cpzilliacus]

I believe empirestate and yours truly already mentioned that incident earlier on this page, although with not nearly as much detail (detail for which we thank you, cpzilliacus).

I saw that but thought that there would be some in our forum that might be interested in the detail in the NTSB report.

I suppose we should be thankful and happy that the service of the NTSB were not needed regarding the Delaware River Turnpike Bridge.

[Roadsguy]

So the Pearl Harbor Extension is entirely closed westbound, but is it open eastbound from US 130 to the mainline NJTP? Google Maps' traffic listing seems to indicate that it is.

[jeffandnicole]

So the Pearl Harbor Extension is entirely closed westbound, but is it open eastbound from US 130 to the mainline NJTP? Google Maps' traffic listing seems to indicate that it is.

Yes, open Eastbound only.

[CanesFan27]

Bernie Newman's Breezewood in the Fall photos of the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike from October 1999 was really the first major feature and submission to my then fledgling geocities website. I've added them back to the blog and updated some information as a lot has and hasn't changed since 1999.

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2017/02/breezewood-in-fall.html

[briantroutman]

I've added them back to the blog and updated some information as a lot has and hasn't changed since 1999.

Those photos were probably the first glimpses of the Abandoned Turnpike I ever had as an under 16 roadgeek who rarely ever got out of his hometown. I can't count the number of times I've visited there in the second half of my life that has passed since then.

Other than the overpass removals, which are obvious, the creeping change that strikes me most when I visit today is how overgrown it is becoming–particularly in the summer months. Trees encroach ever closer from the shoulders. Shrubs grow outward from the median in all directions. Crumbling pavements yield to bristle-like grasses piercing through cracks. In a few places, the road almost disappears entirely.

I wonder if nature will reclaim it all within another few decades.

I also wonder about the legal status of the Abandoned Turnpike these days. The Southern Alleghenies Conservancy's website went dead years ago, and a search for the organization doesn't seem to bring up much beyond some press releases and news articles in the roughly 2000-2005 time frame in which SAC acquired the property and sent a representative to Jeff Kitsko's 2004 SWPA roadgeek meet. If they're trying to raise money or rehabilitate the Abandoned Turnpike, I'm not finding the evidence of it.