Buckle Up for Weekend Traffic Delays

By JACKIE MORLOCK

Updated 3:33 PM EST, Wed, Jul 22, 2009

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I-76W between the Walt Whitman Bridge and University Ave. is a no go this weekend! I repeat, No-Go.

If you ignore the forewarning at least take this advice-- pack a sleeping bag and pillow because you might be camping out in traffic.

Starting Friday November 7 at 8:00 pm until Sunday November 9 at 3:00 pm, the University Ave./Grays Ferry Ave. Interchange will thin out into one lane.

Try these alternate routes instead:

I-95N to I-676W to get to 1-76 in Philadelphia
I-95S to I-476N to get to I-76 in Montgomery County

Thank goodness, though. There will be a tow truck on site to help out stranded drivers and move broken down vehicles out of the area as quickly as possible, according to PennDOT.

Even better news, this will all happen again next weekend, November 14 through November 16. That is, depending on weather conditions.

But, think positively. New concrete overlays will soon embrace the two bridges that carry the expressway over the Schuylkill River, CSX railroad tracks, Grays Ferry Ave. and 34th Street, making them that much safer.

In 2009, I-76 will thin out to one lane in one direction again and again and again and again, 9 more times.

Steel repair and painting, bridge wall replacement and bridge deck repair and resurfacing are all part of PennDOT's $24 million project to improve the two bridges at the University Ave/Grays Ferry Ave Interchange, due to be completed October 2009.

The bridges are pretty old, built sometime in the 1950s with 129,000 vehicles traveling per day on I-76 in the area of the University Ave/Grays Ferry Ave Interchange.