Free bridge in New Hope-Lambertville gets rehab, 8-month detour. Here's the plan
Crossing the Delaware River using the “free bridge” between New Hope and Lambertville is about to get complicated.
A 10-month rehabilitation project for the New Hope-Lambertville Toll-Supported Bridge connecting Pennsylvania and New Jersey begins Monday. And traffic from Bucks County into Lambertville will be detoured for months.
The project addressing a range of issues, including corroded steel and other damage, will remain open to pedestrians and vehicles entering Pennsylvania, according to information about the bridge on the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission’s bridge rehabilitation website.
The repairs will impact the more than 12,000 average vehicles crossings on the 120-year-old bridge, but the commission says that the project will mitigate major repairs and long lane closures for at least 15 years once work finishes this fall.
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What’s the detour on the New Hope-Lambertville Bridge?
The repairs will mainly affect New Jersey-bound drivers who use Bridge Street in New Hope. Traffic to New Jersey will be shutdown during construction. The bridge will, however, remain open to Pennsylvania-bound drivers (from Lambertville to New Hope) and foot traffic.
At the commission’s request, the contractor, Anselmi & DeCicco, Inc. of Maplewood, New Jersey, planned construction to ensure an untolled route out of New Jersey was always open.
“The Commission wanted project work sequenced in a manner that would prevent the free bridge’s Pennsylvania-bound commuters from being forced to use the nearby New Hope-Lambertville (Route 202) Toll Bridge, which is tolled in the Pennsylvania-bound direction,” the project website states.
Instead of connecting to Route 179 (West Bridge Street), drivers approaching New Hope from the west will remain on eastbound Route 202 into New Jersey.
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Drivers in New Hope also will detour over the Route 202 bridge by taking Main Street at the Bridge Street intersection.
Pennsylvania-bound traffic will alternate travel lanes on the bridge as the project moves ahead.
How long will construction take?
The detour itself should only be in place for about eight of the project’s 10-month timetable.
Both directions of the free bridge should be reopened in late September, but drivers can expect intermittent single-lane travel into the fall.
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Crews will mostly be working under the bridge after the detour is lifted, requiring flaggers to direct traffic when necessary.
The project website also adds that the work schedule, like many public works projects, “is subject to change due to unpredictable variables like emergencies, supply-chain issues, and severe weather and river conditions.”
More information about the bridge rehabilitation can be found at https://www.drjtbc.org/project/newhopelambertville.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Free bridge in New Hope closed to New Jersey-bound traffic for months
