The damaged Delaware River Bridge connecting the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes will remain shut down through at least early April as crews work to repair a major crack in the span's steel, highway officials said Friday.
An April re-opening of the 1.25 mile long span that carries Interstate 276 from Bucks County, Pennsylvania into Burlington County, New Jersey is a "best case scenario," Carl DeFebo, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, said in a statement.
A large vertical crack was discovered by an worker inspecting a new paint job last month. The fracture is located in a truss holding up the bridge's road deck on the Pennsylvania side.
Pennsylvania Turnpike CommissionThe bridge, which carries 42,000 vehicles a day between the two highways, was immediately shut down and has remained closed causing major detours and traffic trouble. It's not clear what caused the crack to form or how long it had been there.
Engineers hope to splice together the two broken parts of the truss, DeFebo said. Eight jacking towers are being installed to stabilize the bridge and realign the two fractured pieces of steel.
More than 50 sensors are being installed on the bridge to monitor the stress on the span. The sensors will help officials determine whether the splice suffices.
If the best-case scenario doesn't work out, then engineers might need to undertake a partial reconstruction of the damaged span, or in the worst-case, replacement of the entire structure, officials said.
Local
Breaking news and the stories that matter to your neighborhood.
“If more extensive repairs would be required, it is not possible to offer even a rough estimate on the scope or duration of further construction because we simply do not have adequate information to make that projection,” said Brad Heigel, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission's Chief Engineer.
