Galloway Road Bridge Finally Opens Friday

The dreaded Galloway Bridge detour, which made the already gridlocked Bensalem traffic even worse for the past year, is no more.

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials announced Thursday that the Galloway Road Bridge and another on Bristol-Oxford Valley Road in Bristol Township would open by 5 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Galloway Road was closed because it carries a bridge over the Pennsylvania Turnpike at about milepost 351. As part of the long-anticipated Turnpike/I-95 Interchange Project, the Turnpike in Bucks County near I-95 needed to be widened and thus the two bridges needed to be lengthened. Both bridges were originally built in 1957.

Click here for more information on the project.

The $9.7 million projects were completed by James J. Anderson Construction Company of Philadelphia.

According to a release, the Galloway Road Bridge is a steel bridge with a stone architectural treatment and the Bristol-Oxford Valley Road structure in Bristol Township is a pre-stressed concrete beam bridge.

The main supports of the new structures have been moved farther apart and a new support constructed in the median. The new bridges now include two 12-foot wide travel lanes and 8-foot wide shoulders. A pedestrian sidewalk was added on the east side of the Galloway Road Bridge.

Future projects associated with the I-95 Interchange Connector are scheduled to begin sometime in 2012 and 2013. This includes two overhead bridges that carry Richlieu Road in Bensalem and Ford Road in Bristol over the Turnpike (2012-13); construction of a new Turnpike mainline toll plaza (2013-15); and the restoration of three acres of wetland and streams.

Additionally, work will continue on the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) which includes: closed circuit television cameras, dynamic message signs, a traffic-flow detection system, and connecting existing systems throughout the I-95 project corridor.