Project

full force Monday with the hope of completing the widening of the 1-mile stretch of highway in late September or early October.

A nest was discovered last summer under the bridge in West Norriton Township, Montgomery County.

Two peregrine falcons born last summer were still flying over the Schuylkill River as construction was underway Monday.

The falcons were nesting this spring when construction work resumed in May after it had been halted for two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Volunteers with the Pennsylvania Game Commission monitored the nest daily.

Crews were required to work 300 feet to 1,000 feet away from the nest until July 31.

Some of the major work, including deck repairs and causeway removal from the Schuylkill River, had been prohibited until Aug. 1 to protect the falcons.

But the nest failed July 7, and the major work was allowed to resume.

“The nest failure is not uncommon,” said F. Arthur McMorris, a Bryn Mawr-based biologist who is the peregrine falcon coordinator for the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

McMorris said 50% of nests are successful.

“There are many reasons for a nest to fail,” he said. “It could be infertility or weather related. The adults are still there.

We call them the Betzwood Bridge pair.”

McMorris said workers were following the restrictions around the nest.

The falcons are on the commission’s list of threatened species protected under federal game and wildlife codes.

Brad E. Rudolph, PennDOT spokesman, said workers resumed full construction.

He said the timetable to complete the project remains the same.

On Monday, crews with JD Eckman, based in Atglen,

Chester County, were working on and under the bridge on the eastern side next to Valley Forge National Park.

On a typical day before the pandemic an estimated 92,000 commuters and truckers drive daily on the highway linking Douglassville, Berks County, to King of Prussia, Montgomery County.

Construction of the 1-mile stretch over the Schuylkill River extends from Route 663 to the Route 23 exit to the Valley Forge exit in Montgomery

County.

During construction, eastbound motorists are being shifted to a newly built eastbound lane of the Schuylkill River Bridge.

When complete, the span will have three lanes in both directions.

A sound barrier wall is being installed along the border of Valley Forge National Park.

The project, which began in 2016, is part of ongoing improvements on the 25mile expressway through Berks, Chester and Montgomery counties.