New Jersey Turnpike commissioners approved spending another $3 million to repair the Delaware River bridge between the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Turnpikes, which has been closed since a crack was discovered in a beam in January.
Commissioners approved a $3 million addition to the contract with Cornell & Company of Woodbury for reinforcing key structural members of the bridge truss and closing a two-inch gap between beams on the bridge. That brings the total to $12 million to repair the bridge, jack it back into position and test the condition of other beams.
The 60-year-old bridge was closed on Jan. 20 after inspectors found a crack in a supporting truss beam, which is used by 42,000 vehicles daily. The bridge and the five-mile Pearl Harbor Turnpike extension remain closed.
“The actual repair is in place, we need to pull the beam back together,” said Robert Fischer, turnpike authority chief engineer. “There is a two-inch gap and we need to squeeze it back together, bolt it in position and do further jacking to get it back in position.”
Failure of the truss beam, which had cracked and separated, caused the bridge to shift two inches from its original position, he said. It was jacked back in place last Friday, Fischer said.
The Authority approved more than $9 million in contracts to fabricate eight temporary 80-foot high jacking towers to support the bridge and the splicing steel plates to support the cracked steel bridge piece.
Pending the results of tests done on 44 different places on the bridge, it is on scheduled for an early April reopening.
The bridge is considered a “fracture critical” design, Fischer said. Failure of one of the bridge members could result in the collapse of part or all of a fracture critical span. A temporary piece of steel patch has been on the cracked bridge support.
The bridge is jointly operated and maintained by the Turnpike Commission and Turnpike Authority.
Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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