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Route 420 bridge reopens after abrupt closure this month

The bridge in Prospect Park, Delaware County, was closed earlier this month because of structural issues. Repair work has been completed, PennDot says.

Earlier this month, PennDot workers set up closed signs on the southbound lanes of Route 420 (Wanamaker Ave.) leading to the bridge in Prospect Park on Dec. 8 after an inspection found major structural issues.
Earlier this month, PennDot workers set up closed signs on the southbound lanes of Route 420 (Wanamaker Ave.) leading to the bridge in Prospect Park on Dec. 8 after an inspection found major structural issues.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
    by Robert Moran
    Updated 
    Published 

The Route 420 bridge southbound in Prospect Park, Delaware County, that was abruptly closed earlier this month because of structural issues reopened Tuesday evening after repair work was completed, a PennDot spokesperson said.

The closure of the bridge, which is usually crossed by nearly 20,000 vehicles a day, was announced Dec. 7 after inspectors found “significant beam and bearing pedestal deterioration.”

The bridge closing was described as indefinite “because at that time we did not know whether a repair plan would be successful or when it might take place and finish,” PennDot spokesperson Brad Rudolph said in an email Tuesday.

Contractors will remain on-site through the end of the week, Rudolph said.

The Route 420 bridge, which crosses Darby Creek and connects with I-95 in Tinicum Township, was built in 1930 and was reconstructed in 1951.

PennDot has begun a design to replace the bridge and expects a bid for construction to open in early 2023.

The bridge was noted in an Inquirer story earlier this year that found 512 roadway bridges in the Philadelphia region with average traffic of 100 or more vehicles a day that had a “poor” rating for at least one of three components: deck, superstructure, or substructure.

The Biden administration earlier this year targeted $27.5 billion in new federal aid to states to rehabilitate aging and failing bridges, including $1.6 billion for Pennsylvania.