March 12, 2025
Provided Image/Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes are evaluating long-term plans to ease rising traffic on the Delaware River Bridge, which carries Interstate 95 between the two states.
The future of the Delaware River Bridge — and potential solutions to ease traffic on it — will be discussed Wednesday night during the first of three public meetings being held by Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpike authorities.
One possibility is replacing the toll bridge, which was built in 1956 and connects the turnpikes along Interstate 95. Another is to repair the bridge and construct a second span, allowing motorists to travel into New Jersey on one bridge and into Pennsylvania on the other.
MORE: Sewer project will close Market Street ramp to I-95 South for two weeks
The Delaware River Bridge carries about 67,000 vehicles daily between Bristol Township, Bucks County, and Burlington Township, Burlington County, with two lanes in each direction. That number has risen significantly since 2018, when ramps were completed to reroute I-95 across the 1.25-mile-long bridge. This made I-95 continuous throughout the mid-Atlantic region.
Before that, I-95 crossed the Delaware River just north of Trenton, at the Scudder Falls Bridge and became I-295 at the Route 1 interchange in Lawrence, New Jersey. I-95 then picked up as part of the New Jersey Turnpike in Robbinsville.
In 2017, a crack found in one of the bridge's steel trusses forced a nearly seven-week closure, causing major delays and detours that Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission CEO Mark Compton called a "bad dream for the two turnpike agencies" at the time. The Delaware River Bridge — which was not yet part of I-95 — was seeing 42,000 cars each day.
After the closure, the Federal Highway Administration recommended several options be considered to rehabilitate the bridge or possibly build a new span. An earlier plan selected in 2003 had called for a parallel bridge to be built to the south side of the existing bridge. Under that plan, the Delaware River Bridge was slated to be rehabilitated and maintained for traffic entering Pennsylvania.
"We kind of took a step back and started thinking, maybe we need to start considering different options," John Boyer, the project manager at the Pennsylvania Turnpike, said Wednesday.
Despite the closure in 2017, Boyer said there are no safety issues with the existing bridge.
The Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes are completing environmental studies on each side of the Delaware River Bridge to evaluate long-term ways to improve congestion. Plans are in place to expand the highway to three lanes on both sides of the bridge, enabling more vehicles to cross the river at once.
The decision to table the plan from 2003 was partly driven by a lack of funding during the intervening years, Boyer said. The eventual project will be paid for by both tolling agencies, but federal approval and support for the project could delay the timeline.
"We're looking at a multitude of alternatives to the north and to the south (of the bridge)," Boyer said.
Potential options have not been made public at this time, but Boyer said the 2003 plan remains under consideration.
A decision is not expected before the end of 2027. Regardless of the chosen plan, Boyer said the Delaware River Bridge will not be closed to traffic.
"We're toll driven, so we have to limit impacts on our customers," he said. "We we would not, in any situation, close down the bridge to traffic. We would stage traffic to maintain toll revenue. It's a vital link in the regional and national transportation network."
The meetings this month will provide an overview of the process that will be followed to decide on a plan.
The first is being held at 6 p.m. Wednesday on Zoom to review the options and present some of the community feedback that has been gathered so far.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike also will hold an in-person open house on Wednesday, March 19, from 5-8 p.m. at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Levittown. The New Jersey Turnpike will have its open house on Thursday, March 20 from 5-8 p.m. at the Florence Township Municipal Building.
