Stay Informed!

PennDOT to begin work on JFK Boulevard Bridge

HARRISBURG, March 28 -- State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., announced that work to rehabilitate the John F. Kennedy Boulevard Bridge will begin in two weeks, and that residents should be aware of changing traffic patterns and detours.

The two-year $18 million project to rehabilitate the JKF Boulevard Bridge will begin April 9. The boulevard's two westbound lanes will remain open to traffic, but eastbound traffic will be detoured around the bridge beginning April 9. The posted detour will divert drivers over 30^th Street, Market Street and 20^th Street.

The bridge will remain open to pedestrians.

Josephs said the project will replace the 48-year-old bridge's deck and repair its steel bridge beams and walls, as well as give it a new coat of paint and add decorative streetscape enhancements, including a wider sidewalk and ornamental lights between 30^th Street and Center City. A stairway also will be added to provide access from the bridge to the Schuylkill River Trail below.

She noted that the stairway will be bicycle-friendly, with a "v" groove for cyclists to place their bicycle in when walking up or down the stairs.

Josephs said that PennDOT also will make structural repairs to the deck carrying Schuylkill Avenue over Interstate 76 between Market and Arch streets. Two lanes of traffic will remain open on Schuylkill Avenue during construction, but overnight lane closures will occur on I-76 during certain operations above the expressway.