FRENCHTOWN, NJ – The rehabilitation project at the Uhlerstown-Frenchtown Toll-Supported Bridge has passed the halfway point, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission announced today.
At this time, the project remains on track for completion in the fall. Here’s a brief rundown of the project’s current status and the prognosis for the array of temporary travel restrictions at the bridge:
Painting activities are expected to wrap up by mid-July, allowing removal of the bridge’s upper work platform to begin.
Meanwhile, the installation and painting of new steel supports for the bridge’s walkway are now being installed. This will allow crews to begin placing a new walking surface of foam-core fiber-reinforced panels and accompanying railings by mid-July. The goal is to get the new walkway open by the annual Riverfest on Labor Day weekend.
The current Pennsylvania-bound traffic detour at the bridge is expected to remain in place beyond that date to allow for completion of other project tasks, notably steel repairs and the installation of a new electrical power system and bridge lighting. The detour has been in place since Feb. 20. The uninterrupted detour currently is on track to end sometime in October. Before that happens, though, there will be several overnight bridge closures to allow for concrete-road-surface work at each end of the bridge.
The rehabilitation of the six-span Warren-truss bridge involves a litany of tasks, including – but not limited to – the following:
- Repair various pieces of the bridge’s steel superstructure;
- Clean and repaint all truss sections and underlying bearings;
- Remove the bridge’s current guide rails and install new tubular-steel railings, increasing the bridge’s road deck by seven inches – from 16-feet, six inches to 17 feet, one inch.
- Replace the bridge’s roadway and pedestrian-walkway lighting systems;
- Remove the current concrete-filled steel-grid walkway surface and replace it with a wider system of slip-resistant foam-core fiber-reinforced-polymer panels and new pedestrian hand railings;
- Patch stone masonry spalls and replace concrete approach sidewalk sections;
- Repoint stone masonry and make other masonry repairs; and
- Install a programmable color-changing LED lighting system to highlight the bridge’s architectural profile at night.
The 93-year-old steel bridge between Frenchtown Borough, N.J. and the Uhlerstown section of Tinicum Township, PA. was last rehabilitated in 2001. The bridge superstructure has a 15-ton weight limit, a 12-foot, 6-inch height restriction, and a 15-MPH speed limit. It carried an average of 4,800 vehicles per day in 2024.
