Private Partners Being Sought for New Scudder Falls Bridge

The new Scudder Falls Bridge planned between Bucks County and suburban Trenton will be what officials tout as "the first three-way, public-private partnership in America."

KYW's David Madden reports that Pennsylvania and New Jersey will team up with the owners of the span to find a private company to build and operate the new bridge.

When that new bridge is built, two lanes of I-95 traffic each way will become three, with shoulders and a bike and pedestrian lane added, along with access improvements on both sides of the Delaware River.

The cost is $310 million, with a yet-to-be-approved private firm taking on the project, to be paid for by one-way tolls (southbound, into Pennsylvania) of a dollar or two.

The bridge is currently toll-free, but Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (above) insists the charge will be worth it for drivers:

"They'll get a safe bridge. We will reduce the number of accidents significantly. Secondly, we will dramatically mitigate the hundred hours -- the four days -- a year that commuters sit in congestion."

It's expected the bridge lessee will be decided by October by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, which now runs the span, with the project expected to be complete in little more than two years.

(Photo #1 from DRJTBC. Photo  #2 by KYW's David Madden)