Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
BRIDGE PROJECT NEARS COMPLETION
DOWNINGTOWN » Borough leaders hope that the Chestnut Street Bridge shall reopen by April 1.
The $5.9 million project to revamp the 93-year-old overpass is months away from formal completion after years of planning across multiple agencies spanning local and federal government bodies.
“Despite the appearance of completion, there is still work to be done on the bridge that prevents us from reopening it,” Downingtown Mayor Phil Dague said via a public Facebook page post published on Jan. 20.
“First and foremost, the final layer of macadam has not been laid, and according to Allen Myers Co. that can not be done until we have a 4-5 day stretch of guaranteed favorable weather with consistent temperatures in the upper forties, minimum.”
Since then, the Tri-State region has seen a historic winter storm and snow continues to fall steadily into the second week of February.
The mayor said Downingtown asked if the borough could open the bridge in the interim and were told “Absolutely not.”
Dague continued, “There is also an issue with Amtrak’s dissatisfaction with the height of the barrier fence on the side of the bridge without the sidewalk. Amtrak signed off on the fence when they approved the plans at the onset.”
Amtrak was unavailable to comment despite repeated requests from the Daily Local News, as of the deadline for this report.
“This bridge replacement is a local project,” said Brad Rudolph, deputy communications director for PennDOT covering Engineering District 6 in the Greater Philadelphia Region.
Chestnut Street, a heavily traveled route for locals and commuters including semi-truck drivers, is a roadway overseen at the state level by PennDOT.
The Downingtown project features funding allocated via 80 percent from federal sources, 15 percent provided by thecommonwealth, and 5 percent funded locally. The bridge spans Downingtown and East Caln and the local 5 percent match is shared by both municipalities,
as previously reported.
“As someone who used that bridge twice daily going to and from work, and whose commute home takes 10-15 longer without the use of the bridge, I really do share your pain of having the bridge out-of-service,” Dague said via Facebook back on Jan. 20. “Please just hang in there a little longer.”
The mayor said Monday that the bridge will be open by April 1 — he hopes.
The borough manager concurred.
“We are working to get several issues completed and get the bridge opened by April 1,” said Downingtown Manager Stephen Sullins.
“It will be close.”
“Everyone in the borough is doing everything that we possibly can to get the bridge open,” Dague told the Daily Local News on Monday.
“We will all be glad to be looking at the saga of the Chestnut Street Bridge in our rearview mirrors,” Dague added via Facebook.
The historic Chestnut Street Bridge was built in 1927. The structure is 212 feet long and crosses over train rails for Amtrak, SEPTA and Norfolk Southern.
Downingtown serves as a regional Philadelphia transportation hub with a commuter and intercity passenger rail station in the heart of downtown, along the Brandywine River, at West Lancaster and Stuart avenues.