July 19, 2022 – With preliminary construction underway on the Section CP3 project to build a new ramp from Cottman Avenue (Route 73) to southbound Interstate 95, the contractor has begun roadway and intersection improvements along New State Road in the vicinity of the Tacony Palmyra Bridge, and on nearby sections of Elbridge Street, and Levick Street.
Construction crews will be working around the Bridge this summer to improve traffic flow for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians. Elbridge Street and New State Road will get improved drainage and the pavement will be replaced. The westbound off-ramps from the Bridge to Elbridge Street and New State Road will be streamlined into one ramp to make pedestrian crossing safer.
New State Road between the Bridge and Unruh Street also will be widened so that left-turning lanes can be added at the intersection with Magee Avenue. The turning lanes will reduce backups on New State Road and improve access to the MaST Charter School and the surrounding area.
Work on New State Road in front of the MaST Charter School will be completed this summer in time for the re-opening of school this fall.
In addition, unused sections of Conrail tracks that cross Milnor Street near Princeton Avenue are being removed this summer along with orphaned Contrail tracks along Milnor Street near Bleigh Avenue.
Other early construction activities will focus on completing the relocation of a 10’x10’ sanitary sewer main in the area adjacent to southbound I-95 and east of State Road, between Cottman and Princeton avenues, that previously had been a section of Wissinoming Street. Crews have begun installing shoring for the excavation for the new sewer main.
Once the sewer installation is completed later this year, work will get started on building the retaining wall that help will support the ramp. Following completion of the new ramp, Wissinoming Street will be rebuilt along southbound I-95 between Cottman and Princeton avenues.
Over two years of construction, there will be periodic off-peak travel restrictions and pedestrian posted detours on surface streets around and approaching the I-95/Cottman Avenue Interchange, including New State Road and its intersections at Magee Avenue and Unruh Street, and State Road and its intersections with Cottman Avenue and Princeton Avenue.
Construction to improve New State Road, Elbridge Street, and Levick Street at the Tacony Palmyra Bridge also will require periodic off-peak lane restrictions at those locations to set up phased traffic patterns within the work zone. The contractor implemented the first phase of these patterns in mid-June after the MaST school was closed for the summer.
PennDOT’s contractor has temporarily shifted all four lanes of southbound I-95 at the interchange to allow additional space for the new Cottman on-ramp to be built and tied into the highway.
Under two previous construction projects – CP1, completed in 2012, and CP2, completed in 2017 — I-95 was reconstructed and widened to four lanes in each direction between Bleigh Avenue and Levick Street. I-95 bridges over Bleigh Avenue, Princeton Avenue, New State Road, Unruh Avenue, and Magee Avenue also were replaced.
In addition, a new southbound on-ramp was constructed at Longshore Avenue, and a new northbound on-ramp was constructed at Milnor Street. Plus, a number of surface streets in the vicinity of the interchange were improved, including Cottman and Princeton avenues and New State Road.
The work is part of the $52.7 million I-95/Section CP3 project to construct a new southbound I-95 on-ramp at Cottman Avenue and improve traffic flow on surface streets in the vicinity of the Cottman-Princeton Interchange. C. Abbonizio Contractors, Inc. of Sewell, N.J., is the general contractor on the 100 percent Federally funded project.
