Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Work to start again on Route 202
Bridge rehabilitation comes after 8 months of clear driving on the road
PennDOT is ready to begin the rehabilitation of two bridges over Amtrak rail lines on Route 202, near Route 30.
Just when motorists thought it was safe to go back onto Route 202 again ...
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is ready to begin the rehabilitation of two bridges over Amtrak rail lines near the Route 30 interchanges on the heavily traveled road in East Whiteland and West Whiteland.
The $26.4 million project is the final phase of the U.S. 202 Section 300 improvement project. Crews will repair the sixspan twin structures by upgrading the support piers; replacing the bridge decks and walls; constructing a retaining wall to stabilize the embankment, rehabilitating existing concrete pavement north of the bridges; and installing new Intelligent Transportation System, or ITS, equipment, PennDOT said in a statement announcing the work on Tuesday.
The work should not cause the types of delays motorists have endured over the last sev-
eral decades as the road has been widened and improved, said Brad Rudolph, deputy communications director at PennDOT. Route 202 in the area carries 70,000 to 75,000 cars a day.
“No, nothing like that,” Rudolph said when asked if the work would lead to backups akin to the work at routes 401 and 29 that for years created backups during rush hours. “Traffic will be maintained.”
P. Timothy Phelps, executive director of the Transportation Management Association of Chester County, or TMACC, said commuters should give themselves a little extra time for their drives to and from work once the work begins in earnest.
“That’s going to be the reaction, ‘here we go again,’” Phelps acknowledged. “There will be a few pinch points that will have a fewminute delay probably but it shouldn’t be that bad.”
Those who use the road to get to work should consider ride sharing and, when possible, public transportation, Phelps added.
There will continue to be two lanes of traffic in each direction, Rudolf said, noting that motorists will need to be aware of shifts during the work process. The project is expected to take until the fall of 2019 to completed.
In order to maintain two lanes of traffic in each direction on Route 202 at all times, construction will be completed in five stages to use what PennDOT calls an “express lane” traffic shift. A temporary traffic pattern will be used to carry one lane on the bridge under construction and a second lane on the adjacent bridge, where concrete barriers will separate the lane from the
two travel lanes heading in the opposite direction.
This week, PennDOT’s contractor will begin shoulder work on Route 202 to establish a work zone from just south of Route 401 to just north of Boot Road. Other preliminary construction activities over the next two weeks include equipment mobilization and survey operations, PennDOT said.
Beginning Monday, March 20, crews will start rebuilding the northbound and southbound U.S. 202 shoulders and build crossover lanes in the median at the northern and southern ends of the work zone.
Preparations will then be made to shift one lane over of northbound traffic to the southbound side of U.S. 202, where concrete barriers will separate it from the two lanes of southbound traffic. The second northbound lane will remain on the northbound bridge behind construction barrier as the opposite side is rehabilitated under Stage 1 of the bridge work. Once half the northbound bridge is reconstructed, the northbound lane will be shifted onto the newly reconstructed half, and the opposite side of the bridge will be rehabilitated under Stage 2.
When the rehabilitation of the northbound bridge is completed in mid-2018, three lanes of traffic — two northbound lanes and a southbound express lane — will be shifted to the rebuilt northbound bridge. The southbound bridge will then be reconstructed one half-at-a-time under Stages 3-4.
A final construction stage will remove the crossovers and restore the median.
The department said that in addition to rehabilitating the two Route 202 bridges, the improvement project includes restoring U.S. 202 pavement near the U.S. 30 Interchange; rehabilitating
the bridge carrying Morstein Road over U.S. 202 in East Goshen; and installing new highway signs and Dynamic Message System structures on U.S. 202 and U.S. 30 in Tredyffrin, East Whiteland and West Whiteland townships in Chester County, and on U.S. 202 in Upper Merion in Montgomery County.
Allan A Myers, Inc. of Worcester, Montgomery County, is the general contractor on the $26.4 million project which is financed with 100 percent federal funds.
It was in late July the motorists and county officials celebrated the completion of work on Route 202, leaving the heavily traveled road free from construction for the first time in decades. PennDOT said at the time they would return to do the work over the Amtrak bridges this spring.