First Step of Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Starts Monday

The first step of the Scudder Falls Bridge replacement project will begin next week.

Tree clearing work on the bridge that connects New Jersey and Pennsylvania via I-95 will start Jan. 4, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission announced this week. The tree clearing is being done to create noise-abatement walls as part of the bridge replacement project, which gets fully underway in 2017.

”The site preparation work will consist of the clearing, removal and disposal of trees, logs, dead trees and other vegetation and debris at certain sections on both sides of the I-95 segment between the Route 332/Newtown interchange and the Taylorsville Road interchange in Lower Makefield Township,” authorities said.

A.P. Construction of Blackwood, N.J. has been hired to do the tree-clearing work. Construction of the noise walls is expected to begin under a separate contract during the spring.

The bridge is currently considered “functionally obsolete” and features inadequate acceleration and deceleration lanes, which are the cause of more than 100 accidents a year, according to a video posted by the DelawareRiver Joint Toll Bridge Commission.

To ease traffic congestion and improve safety, a new bridge will be created and interchanges from Taylorsville Road in Bucks County and Route 29 in New Jersey will be reconfigured.

The project, which will be constructed in stages, is estimated to be finished in 2021.

Once complete, there will be a southbound toll upon entry into Pennsylvania.