SEPTA dedicates its new Crum Creek viaduct
SWARTHMORE >> SEPTA proudly dedicated its completed Crum Creek Viaduct Replacement Project in Swarthmore Friday, a little more than a month after the Regional Rail returned to regular service on the Media-Elwyn Line.
What may have proven to be a headache for many commuters over the summer has now officially, and mercifully, come to an end.
SEPTA General Manager Jeff Knueppel, who spoke often publicly over the summer while the defective Silverliner V cars were taken out of service, coinciding with the closure of the Regional Rail line at the Swarthmore Station from Center City, expressed sincere thanks to the engineers for swiftly completing the project and thanks to customers for their patience.
“We estimate a savings of $10 million over the conventional ‘design-bid-build’ approach,” Knueppel said. “Walsh (Construction) was able to accelerate construction while limiting the amount of outage time needed to complete the work.”
In the 18 months that it took to fully complete the project, Walsh Construction needed only this summer to fully close the viaduct that runs over Crum Creek in the woods near Swarthmore College.
“Walsh accomplished this by building the new bridge foundations up to and just underneath the existing structure,” Knueppel said. “Then they demolished the old viaduct and installed, or in this case rolled in, the new bridge.”
The previous viaduct was built with a trestle design that rose over 100 feet above the creek and spanned more than 900 feet across the gap. It was completed in 1895. The new viaduct is a 735-footlong steel and concrete structure comprised of five long spans, four piers and two abutments that replaced the 17 simply supported steel spans.
“(This is) a viaduct built to last, a viaduct built for the future,” Knueppel said.
SEPTA said the bridge was constructed for a 100year lifespan.
The funding for the $55.5 million viaduct project was largely made possible through Act 89, the Transportation Bill, that was signed into law in 2013 by former Gov. Tom Corbett to fund road projects, bridge repairs, and public transit. SEPTA boasted that they finished the project under budget.
“The passage of Act 89 has allowed us to move forward with projects like this,” said Tom Babcock, SEPTA Board Vice Chairman. “This viaduct and the Media-Elwyn line overall, which predates the Civil War, represent what was at stake with transportation funding.”
By 2018, Pennsylvania will have an addition $2.3 billion a year to spend on transportation and infrastructure.
“1895, I’d say SEPTA got their money out of that bridge,” joked state Sen. Tom McGarrigle, R-26 of Springfield. “Let’s see if they get the same amount of money out of this bridge.”
Politicians like McGarrigle, state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, and state Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-161 of Swarthmore, had stumped for or spoken in support of the transportation bill and its benefits for the residents and commuters in Delaware County.
“While it is a tall task for us to replace and repair this infrastructure, it’s most certainly a necessary task,” Krueger-Braneky said. “I can think of no better investment of our tax dollars than towards projects like this that keep people safe and also create good, paying jobs for our community.”
Delaware County Council Chairman Mario J. Civera Jr. said this was an example of “what government is all about and why it works for the people.
“When you see something like this, and you see something where your tax dollars have gone, you walk away and say that was the right thing to do,” Civera said.