The proposed design for the Holme Avenue Bridge Replacement is shown spanning Roosevelt Boulevard.
A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation construction engineer delivered condolences and a pep talk last week to a group of Northeast residents whose proximity to the Pennypack Circle reconstruction project has been a source of near constant headaches for months.
Speaking during the monthly meeting of the Holme Circle Civic Association, Keith Dawson, PennDOT’s construction supervisor on the project, said, “It’s a very complicated and tight project and I know it’s a burden to the people who live here. … I know it’s bad.”
Later, he added, “Right now is the worst part of the project for traffic. … It’s going to incrementally improve, but right now is the worst part.”
The good news is that a two-lane bottleneck on Holme Avenue just east of the circle could be relieved by the middle of August. Officially, work on the $15.5 million contract is scheduled to continue through August 2016. But work is ahead of schedule, Dawson said, and it could be “90 percent complete” by the end of this year.
Launched last August, the main objective of the project is to replace two deteriorating roadway bridges that connect Holme Avenue with Solly Avenue, spanning Roosevelt Boulevard. The curving bridges are not imminently dangerous to motorists, but do not meet state standards for structural integrity. In order to keep cars moving during construction, PennDOT decided to keep the old bridges open while building a new single bridge between them. Once the new span is complete, the old bridges can be torn down.
According to PennDOT, more than 22,000 vehicles traverse that stretch of Holme Avenue daily, while almost 64,000 travel on the adjoining section of the Boulevard, including about 25,000 on the six outer lanes.
The new bridge will have six lanes, the same as both old bridges combined. The new configuration will have four westbound lanes and two eastbound, including dedicated left turn lanes. The old configuration had three lanes each direction.
In recent times, neighbors have been more concerned with traffic patterns on Holme Avenue in front of Nazareth Hospital. Through the construction zone, vehicle access has been reduced to one lane in each direction, causing massive backups approaching a traffic light at the Boulevard.
“When police are not there, people are honking all day,” said one resident who lives near the bottleneck. “People can’t wait three or four (cycles) to get through.”
Compounding the problem is that Fairfield Street and the Nazareth Hospital driveway intersect with Holme Avenue just east of the Boulevard.
In response to earlier complaints, PennDOT began paying for extra Philadelphia police coverage of the intersection “throughout the day,” Dawson said. The woman resident said that police aren’t there all the time. And even when they are, they should be more active in directing traffic rather than simply monitoring it, she said.
Another resident suggested changing the timing of the traffic signal to give longer green lights to the cars on Holme Avenue. But that would reduce the greenlight time for motorists on the Boulevard, a heavily traveled U.S. highway.
Nearby alternative routes for local folks to get from one side of the Boulevard to the other include Rhawn Street and the Ryan Avenue/Borbeck Avenue crossing. ••
Under construction: The two-lane bottleneck on Holme Avenue just east of Pennypack Circle could be relieved by the middle of August. Officially, work on the $15.5 million contract is scheduled to continue through August 2016, but work is ahead of schedule. MARIA POUCHNIKOVA / TIMES PHOTO
