South St. bridge will close in 2002 for construction

The gateway between campus and the city will remain closed for a year. In an effort to bring one of the gateways between Penn's campus and Center City up to modern standards, the City of Philadelphia's Department of Streets will begin reconstruction of the South Street Bridge in the spring of 2002, officials announced this week. The $40 million project, which will close the bridge for more than a year, aims to rebuild it while maintaining its compatibility with the historic areas surrounding it -- which include the Ramcat-Schuylkill historic district on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River and the Penn campus on the western bank. According to Lane Fike, the Department of Streets' project manager for the construction, portions of the bridge are over 120 years old, dating back to its 1876 construction. "We want to bring [the bridge] back up to standards so it can carry modern loads [and] make it structurally sufficient," Fike said. The bridge will be closed because trying to keep it even partially open during construction would cause structural and timetable difficulties, according to Russell Kolmus, the project manager for Gannett Fleming, Inc., an international consulting firm working on the project with the city. During construction, all cross-river traffic will be detoured to Walnut and Chestnut streets and the South Street exit for Interstate 76 will also be closed and detoured to other nearby exits. The cost of the project will be primarily funded by the Federal Highway Administration, with additional funding at state and local levels, Fike said. While the project is still in its preliminary design stages, developers aim to reconstruct the old bridge structure and expand the width of the bridge in several areas to allow for additional traffic and bike lanes. The center section of the bridge will be expanded from 56 feet wide to 83 feet, with the addition of a second travel lane in each direction, a five-foot bike lane on each side of the roadway and an 11-foot painted median that will provide for a left-hand turn lane at the I-76 ramps which intersect the bridge. At the western end of the bridge, the platform will be expanded to 72 feet, and 61 feet at the eastern end. According to Susan Myerov, an environmental planner for Gannett Fleming, the firm has conducted environmental studies on the area around the bridge to ensure that the reconstruction would not harm the surrounding environment. The firm sent letters to federal, local and state organizations to coordinate with agencies that would be interested in the project -- including the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of the Interior, the Schuylkill River Development Commission and the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Gannett Fleming also conducted a vegetative analysis of the riverbank and a historic analysis of the surrounding area that would determine whether the construction would affect the surrounding environment. The new bridge will have several new features that will give it "architectural flair," including two outlook points with gazebos and new traffic and pedestrian lightposts, Kolmus said. While the SEPTA regional rail system's University City Station will not be accessible from South Street during the construction, it should be accessible from 33rd Street. The construction will also restrict access from South Street to Penn's Hollenbach Center at 30th and South streets but the center will still be accessible from ground-level, Kolmus said.

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