PATCO Work On Ben Franklin Bridge Almost Done. Honest!
By David Madden
CAMDEN, N.J., (CBS) -- For about two years now, we have taken you chapter and verse through a rail replacement project on the PATCO high speed line.
Well, that book is just about finished. PATCO officials say they got the news this week from the contractor doing the work.
"We have three more weekends of work to do and he will be finished," PATCO GM John Rink told KYW Newsradio. "Now the contractor might have punch list work next year but that would be done on Saturdays and Sundays and not impact the weekday schedule."
The final regular delays begin this Thursday midday through Monday morning, when trains will run only on the south side track. There'll also be special holiday schedules in effect around Christmas and New Years. But by January 4th, it'll be finally back to normal.
The work is coming in on budget, at $103 million, and a little ahead of schedule. "We went with an extended outage between Fourth of July and Labor Day, giving the contractor the extended outage the entire time to complete this work," Rink said, "and with that, we're able to finish the job in 3 weeks verses April or May of next year."
Not only have the rails across the bridge been replaced, but they also installed new electrical and communications systems that had been in place since the 1950's.
The good news is this work will keep the system up and running for the next 25 years, at least.