I-95, Turnpike Link to Begin Construction in June

The breakout project allows the transferring of funds that will go towards the widening and reconstruction of the mainline PA Turnpike in Bristol Township from a point approximately 100-feet west of the I-95 overpass to a point 500-feet west of the Delaware River Bridge Toll Plaza.

The $155 million first stage will pay for widening and reconstruction of about four miles of the turnpike in Bristol Township as well as other improvements, an Associated Press story says.

“This is a critical step in advancing a project that we have supported for a long time,” Executive Director of TMA Bucks Bill Brady said in a statement Friday. “Breakout projects like this keep the overall plan alive and moving forward. Each step along the way gets us closer to the goal of a completed connection between I-95 and the PA Turnpike.”

I-95 will now be connected from Maine to Florida when the Bristol Township work is done, as parts of the existing Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes will be redesignated as I-95. When the project was first approved in summer, the Pennsylvania Turnpike commission said the project would finally complete the nation’s original Interstate Highway System and improving travel through the Mid-Atlantic.

The long-awaited link has been discussed for decades and has brought concerns among business owners along Route 13 who see a boost from drivers using the four-lane road to get between I-95 and Turnpike ramps by Green Lane in Bristol.

In preperation for the project, two bridges have been built and a wetlands mitigation project has started. The new Ford Road bridge in Bristol Township is one of the two built to accommodate the larger I-95.

The Inquirer  reported in their story about how the project is being partly financed by foreign investors.

Stage 1 of the project is expected to be completed in 2018.