In a meeting with community members on Wednesday, March 16, representatives from PennDOT provided updates and addressed questions and concerns regarding the ongoing I-95 construction projects.
The meeting, which was held at the Bridesburg Recreation Center and was attended by a little over a dozen residents, featured discussions on the I-95 Bridge Street Ramps (BSR) and Betsy Ross Interchange (BRI) projects.
One of the next phases of the BSR project will see the design and construction of an extension of Delaware Avenue from Orthodox to Tacony streets in order to improve access to waterfront businesses and parks. That new roadway will include two travel lanes, a parking lane and a mixed-use path for both bicyclists and pedestrians. Connections to Orthodox, Buckius and Richmond streets are also planned.
The current expectation is that the design phase will wrap up in 2023 with construction on the extension beginning in 2024. Kazi Hassan, a project manager for the Bridge Street and Delaware Avenue projects, said that they are continuing to communicate with both the city and private developers in the area to gather more information as they go through the design process.
“Trying to have a cohesive design that’s going to work for everybody is ultimately everybody’s goal,” Hassan said. “So the timeline is kind of our best guess right now.”
In regard to the BRI project, ramp construction that started in mid-2020 is currently ongoing. Alexis Williams, the lead planner for the BRI project, said that work on the new replacement ramp from the Betsy Ross Bridge to I-95 south as well as the ramp that connects to I-95 north will wrap up this spring. Meanwhile, the reconstruction of the ramp from I-95 north to the bridge should finish closer to the fall. The ramp from Aramingo Avenue to I-95 south will be worked on after that, with work on that set to be completed in mid-2023.
Williams added that as part of the project, they will be conducting a good amount of community service at the underpassage between Lefevre and Orthodox streets to clean up the area. That includes installing better lighting and performing landscaping work around street entrances.
Williams also expects to start receiving more direct input from residents on the BRI project as a whole, since in-person meetings have been few and far between over the past few years.
“The community involvement is gonna ramp up more now that COVID is calming down,” Williams said. “We’re going to get a lot of feedback on things.”
More information regarding the I-95 projects can be found at www.95revive.com.
