NEW HOPE, PA – The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission today announced the award of an engineering contract for construction management and constructability review services associated with the Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Project.
The contract was approved by Commissioners at their February 29 for a not-to-exceed amount of $912,693.42.
Under the contract, the engineering firm Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. of Lebanon, N.J. will be responsible for two key oversight functions in advance of the multi-faceted bridge project.
First, Greenman-Pedersen will provide construction management services for construction of noise abatement walls along eligible portions of the Pennsylvania I-95 approach to the Scudder Falls Bridge. This professional services work will involve a variety of oversight tasks, including establishing and monitoring the project schedule and construction progress, reviewing shop drawings, and administering invoicing and payments. Greenman-Pedersen also will provide the resident engineers who will supervise the field inspectors for the Pennsylvania noise wall installations.
Noise wall construction is not expected to begin along the I-95 approach in Lower Makefield, PA until later in the spring. Tree clearing work is already underway in areas where noise walls have already been approved for installation. A specific start date for noise wall installation activities won’t be determined until the Commission completes a review of noise-reading data and awards a construction contract for the work.
The second contract component involves the constructability review of the “60-percent design progress submissions” of the final design for the Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Project’s main construction contract. This documentation recently was resubmitted to the Commission by the project’s final design engineering firm, Michael Baker, Inc. of Hamilton, N.J. Under Greenman-Pedersen’s new contract, the firm’s sub-consultant – WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff – is to conduct an independent review of the project’s construction methods, schedule and costs.
Execution of the first stage of the bridge project’s main construction contract is currently projected to begin in early 2017.
The Commission has stepped up project preparations over the course of the past year, beginning with the award of a final design contract to Baker in February 2015. A Pennsylvania-oriented open house on current tree cutting activities and upcoming noise wall construction along I-95 in Lower Makefield, PA. was held in early December. A New Jersey-oriented project open house and corresponding New Jersey No-Net-Loss Reforestation Hearing at the West Trenton Fire Company’s Ballroom in Ewing, N.J. is scheduled to be held March 15. The open house is set to begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by the reforestation hearing at 6 p.m.
The Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Project involves a heavily commuted 4.4-mile portion of the I-95 corridor extending from the Route 332/Yardley-Newtown Road interchange (exit 49) in Bucks County, PA. and the Bear Tavern Road/Route 579 interchange (exit 2) in Mercer County, N.J. The congestion-prone highway segment is a choke point for job-commuter traffic between Bucks County, PA. and Central Jersey.
The nearly 55-year-old bridge and nearby interchanges are classified as functionally obsolete. To address recurring traffic safety and capacity problems at the bridge, its adjoining interchanges and I-95 approaches, the Commission is pursuing a comprehensive project for the highway segment.
The project’s final design stage is expected to reach completion during late summer/early fall. Once construction gets fully underway in early 2017, it’s expected that it will take up to four years to complete all of the project’s elements. More precise construction start and end dates will be established after final design is completed.
