What to Know
- Two major bridges connecting Pennsylvania and New Jersey will close starting Friday.
- Closures and detours around the Scudder Falls Bridge start Friday. Some could last into 2021.
- The Benjamin Franklin Bridge will close Sunday between 6:30 a.m. and 8:15 a.m.
People traveling between Pennsylvania and New Jersey this weekend are advised to give themselves extra time as a series of bridge and highway closures take effect.
The first series of closures and detours kicks in Friday around the Scudder Falls Bridge. Also Friday, a stretch of Interstate 76 will close before the Benjamin Franklin Bridge temporarily shuts down Sunday.
The closures and detours around the Scudder Falls Bridge, which connects Bucks County on the Pennsylvania side to Mercer County on the New Jersey side, are scheduled to begin Friday at 5 p.m., the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission said in a press release.
Drivers traveling into New Jersey will be redirected onto Interstate 295 and the new Scudder Falls Bridge as traffic shifts away from the old, "functionally obsolete" bridge, the commission said. The detours will stay in effect until Scudder Falls Bridge's second span gets constructed, sometime in late 2020 or early 2021.
Three ramps on the Taylorsville Road interchange will also close, with drivers being detoured onto Scudder Falls Bridge via the Yardley-Newtown Road interchange. On the New Jersey side, two ramps will close: the I-295 off-ramp to Route 29 and the River Road on-ramp.
Both the Taylorsville Road and Route 29 ramp closures will be in effect until around Aug. 17.
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More details on the Scudder Falls Bridge closures can be found here.
The next closure will begin Friday at 11 p.m. as a stretch of I-76 shuts down for viaduct repairs.
All the eastbound lanes from 30th Street Station to the South Street Bridge will be closed from 11 p.m. Friday until 10 a.m. Saturday. The same stretch will then be detoured from 10 p.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday and from 9 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday, PennDOT said.
On Sunday, the Ben to the Shore Bike Tour charity cycling ride will see the Benjamin Franklin Bridge close to traffic in both directions.
The closure will be in effect from 6:30 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. Drivers are advised to take alternates like the Walt Whitman and Betsy Ross bridges.
