By Julian Walker
Times Staff Writer
Motorists planning to travel from Northeast Philadelphia to New Jersey via the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge this weekend had better find an alternate route into the Garden State.
Officials with the Burlington County Bridge Commission announced last week that the well-traveled span will be closed to motorists from 6 p.m. Thursday, April 8, through 6 a.m. on Monday, April 12.
During the weekend, the 75-year-old drawbridge will have steel track plates replaced on the New Jersey side of the bridge. The work is part of an ongoing project to update the Tacony-Palmyra, said bridge commission spokesman Bob Stears.
“These plates are part of the mechanism that opens and closes the bridge,” he said. “The repairs are part of a multi-year project to improve the bridge.”
For the past two years, workers have gradually replaced various components of the bridge as part of the project.
Total cost to renovate the span is about $6 million. This weekend’s project will cost about $2 million and represents the largest facet of the ongoing work, Stears noted, adding that all repairs should be done by the end of this year.
“This is the longest closing for work. It is a very significant portion of the project,” he said. “We have closed a day here and a day there for work, but mostly it has been at night, so motorists haven’t noticed.”
The current maintenance isn’t correcting any flaws in the bridge. It has been undertaken as a preventive step to keep the span in good working order.
“In terms of these repairs, we are ahead of the curve,” said Stears. “Some of the pieces we are replacing are originals to the structure, so we have gotten a great deal of use out of them.”
The Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, off Levick Street and New State Road, connects the Northeast, and specifically the Tacony neighborhood, to Palmyra in South Jersey.
The bridge opened in 1929 — an 18-month construction project that cost $4 million — and stretches nearly 3,700 feet. About 23,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily, generating $27 million in annual revenue in tolls.
The Burlington County Bridge Commission also operates the Burlington-Bristol Bridge, Riverside-Delanco Bridge and several other smaller spans. ••
For information, visit www.bcbridges.org
Reporter Julian Walker can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jwalker@phillynews.com