From an outsider observer’s perspective the entirety of Bristol Township’s experience of bringing back the Randall Avenue Bridge back on line can be summed up in a phrase; Lots of hoop jumping.
Bristol Township was working towards and hoping that the Randall Avenue Bridge would be reopened before 2025 ends. The plan had to be slightly adjusted because it was announced at the Thursday night Council meeting that a gas line near the bridge needed to be replaced before the year’s end.
At the August council meeting, Township Manager Randee Mazur was cautiously optimistic saying she hoped the bridge now closed for 30 months would reopen before the end of 2025.
The township has had to jump through a series of hoops at varying heights with different degrees of difficulty- Amtrak meeting with officials, delaying work schedules, locating vetting, hiring a contractor that actually has a successful track record of fixing the issues of a more than 100 year old bridge, getting work approvals from Amtrak and PennDOT- just to tick off a few.
Township Engineer Kurt Schroeder said the abutment work taking place on the span currently is scheduled to be completed at the end of October… but PECO is doing some coordinated work on a gas line replacement. This was completely independent of the township’s bridge work. We’re hearing that there’s a delay caused by that work having to be done this year. So, we don’t know how much it could delay it, but we had targeted opening by the end of the year. There is a good chance that it will drag into 2026.
And then Schroeder said, this is all subject to going through the hoops of getting PennDOT to agree to allow us to reopen the bridge which we’re confident they will.
Credit: Bristol Twp
If the bridge was currently open, the PECO gas line replacement would have more than likely shut down access to the span. This is due to the steep inclines where work needs to be done, said Schroeder. He told members that the work on the bridge was actually holding PECO up with getting the new gas line installed.
They’ve been waiting on us, Schroeder, said.
Township officials said PennDOT visited the bridge site during the first phase of the work and everything looked good to them.
The contractor is making good progress. The abupment and all of the loose concrete was removed and it’s now cast with new concrete, he said. A lot of the hidden stuff is now completely uncovered and we’re putting it back together, officials said.
So, we’ve started that process in anticipation of reopening it shortly. Officials say work progress on the bridge is excellent.
Just a few more hoops to jump through, the township hopes, before finally reopening the bridge closed for more than two years due to safety concerns.
The current contractor- Loftus Construction- was awarded the $2.75 million contract earlier this year.
