More Changes Ahead In U.S. 1 Construction: PennDOT

BENSALEM, PA — Officials from PennDOT this week offered an update on the construction project on U.S. 1 in Bensalem and local drivers should expect more changes.

This summer, the focus of the $94 million project has been on replacing the northbound side of bridges over Street Road, the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the turnpike ramps, as well as rebuilding the south side of the Street Road interchange, PennDOT said.

Crews are scheduled to finish the side support walls and center piers for the turnpike overpass this month, PennDOT said, followed by the placement of deck beams and deck construction, which will start in the fall.

Work on the U.S. 1 bridge over the turnpike ramps will require a "slight shift" of traffic away from the north wall later this month, PennDOT said. That will be so support sheeting can be installed for the safe demolition of the current abutment and the construction of a new one.

At the Street Road interchange, all ramp traffic has been moved to the north side, allowing crews to install stormwater drainage pipes and inlets for excavation for new ramps.

By now, local drivers will be familiar with the new traffic pattern there, where traffic that normally uses the now-closed ramps on the south side of the interchange is being directed to the ramps to and from U.S. 1 on the westbound side of Street Road.

There's also a temporary intersection that's been installed at the base of those ramps to facilitate traffic to and from eastbound State Road.

Abutment walls also are being build on the northbound side of the new U.S. 1 bridge over Street Road. Construction on a new deck there is expected to begin later this summer, once the abutments are finished.

Widening on the eastbound side of Street Road also has begun, PennDOT said. That work is happening between U.S. 1 and Kingston Way to the east.

Work that has already begun on the northbound side of U.S. 1 is expected to continue through early 2020, according to PennDOT, and then shift to the middle of U.S. 1 before moving to the southbound side and ramps.

The work that is happening now is the first of three PennDOT contracts designed to improve more than four miles of U.S. 1 from Old Lincoln Highway in Bensalem through Langhorne and to north o the Rt. 413 interchange in Middletown.

All three phases are expected to take roughly eight years.

Alan Myers Construction, of Worcester, is the general contractor on the project. For more information, you can visit PennDOT's website set up for the project.