Scudder Falls Bridge
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The Scudder Falls Bridge is a bridge on Interstate 95 connecting Pennsylvania and New Jersey, located at Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania and Ewing Township, New Jersey. It carries 55,000 vehicles per day (AADT. The bridge was constructed and is currently maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.
Scudder Falls is the southernmost freeway-standard bridge on the Delaware River where no tolls are required for vehicular traffic in either direction; the furthest south free ("toll-supported") bridge is the Lower Trenton Bridge (commonly called the Trenton Makes Bridge).
The bridge is currently being studied for expansion, due to the inadequacies of the current configuration. At present, the bridge consists of a roadway 48 feet wide, split into 4 twelve-foot lanes. Opposing traffic is separated by a concrete barrier. Current design standards call for, at minimum, the addition of an inside shoulder 3 feet wide (adding 6 feet to its current width) and an outside shoulder 12 feet wide (adding 24 feet to its current width. Meanwhile, closely spaced interchanges on both ends of the bridge require the addition of acceleration and decelaration lanes (currently there are none), which would add an additional 24 feet of width to parts of the bridge near each shore. Meanwhile, the bridge's 4 lanes are already carrying well beyond the design load of 40,000 vehicles per day (AADT), requiring 2 to perhaps 4 additional travel lanes (24 to perhaps 48 additional feet of roadway width). In short, the current structure, while structurally sufficient, is functionally obsolete, and requires major expansion or replacement.
External link
- Scudder Falls Bridge Improvement Project (http://www.scudderfallsbridge.com/index.htm)