NEW HOPE, PA. – New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge traffic could be stopped in both directions for up to 30 minutes during overnight hours late Monday, Dec. 1, and early Tuesday, Dec, 2, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission announced today.
The anticipated extended traffic stoppage will allow a Commission contractor’s crane crew to hoist a 30,000-pound steel monotube atop two recently erected pre-cast-concrete towers along the bridge’s Pennsylvania approach.
The monotube will later be outfitted with high-resolution cameras and E-ZPass toll-reading devices. When completed, the facility will allow for open-road highway-speed cashless toll collections through E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE license-plate billing. The Commission stopped collecting cash tolls at the bridge in June 2024.
For safety reasons, traffic will need to be stopped when work crews hoist the 24-inch-diameter, 110-feet-long column across the roadway and into place atop the support columns alongside both directions of Route 202. The 30-minute stoppage is estimated to occur at some point between midnight on Monday (last second of that day) and 5 a.m. Tuesday. The bridge’s traffic volumes are extremely light during those overnight hours.
Motorists who use the bridge during overnight hours are urged to plan ahead and consider an alternate route during the wee morning hours Tuesday. Passenger vehicles can cross the New Hope-Lambertville Toll-Supported Bridge (4-ton load posting, one mile downriver) or the Centre Bridge-Stockton Toll-Supported Bridge (5-ton load posting, 2.3 miles upriver). Larger and heavier vehicles would need to use the I-78 Toll Bridge (approximately 31 miles upstream) or the Scudder Falls (I-295) Toll Bridge (10.4 miles downstream).
Motorists who choose to use the Route 202 toll bridge Monday into Tuesday are otherwise urged to exercise caution and be prepared to stop. Travel delays are possible.
The overnight work is part of a project that is converting the bridge’s former southbound cash-collection toll plaza to highway-speed open-road tolling involving E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE billing. The project also involves repairs and improvements to the bridge’s Pennsylvania abutment.
The bridge has already been reduced to single travel lanes in each direction, each with narrowed width and posted 25 MPH speed limits.
NOTE: The upcoming overnight travel restriction is subject to change due to weather, emergencies, or other factors.
