Massive Route 13 Project Completion Date Pushed to 2016

Weeks into year two of the massive Route 13 overhaul, PennDOT says the project’s completion date has been pushed back.

The completion date, according to PennDOT, is now somewhere around June 2016. The original planned completion date was October 2015.

The roughly $40 million project is expected to revitalize the busy commuter route by creating a new median, adding some sidewalks, reconstructing the roadway, adding left turn lanes and ridding the area of several jug handles.

Crews working on the project through Bristol, Bristol Township and Tullytown have faced delays from “utility conflicts” and weather, PennDOT spokesman Charles Metzger said recently.

PennDOT hopes to have the northern end of the project (toward Tullytown and Bristol Township) ready for curbs, sidewalks and paving by early spring. Crews plan to be ready to pour concrete and pave as soon as the weather permits.

“The public should really notice a drastic increase in activity project-wide by mid to late March as the weather improves and we continue to push to have this project completed as quickly as possible.” Metzger said.

Metzger explained the “utility conflicts” that caused delays required PECO, Aqua, Verizon and the local municipal agencies to “relocate many of their facilities in order for the stormwater drainage improvements, new sidewalks and roadway work to begin.”

Over the winter, crews have been working south of Green Lane  to clear underground and aerial utilities. The work is similar to the early stages of the work north of Green Lane from when the project kicked off last year.

For Up-to-Date Project Information, Visit Safer13.com

Despite the recent delays, “rehabilitation of the bridge over Adams Hollow Creek at Beaver Dam Road, and the replacement of the bridge over Otter Creek have also made steady progress,” Metzger said. He added the bridge over Otter Creek in Bristol is being built in two stages.

The bone-chilling temperatures have also taken a toll of the project, which will overhaul just over 4 miles of Route 13.

“Aside from the obvious physical discomfort of working in freezing temperatures, many of the materials used on projects like this cannot be placed at low temperatures,” Metzger said.

He said concrete for curbs and sidewalks should not be placed at temperatures below 40 degrees in most cases. If there is moisture in the concrete and it freezes, the concrete will not cure at all, the spokesman said.

“Bituminous paving can not be done in extremely cold temperatures either,” he said. PennDOT has restrictions for placing permanent paving material in cold weather. The material is to be placed hot and hardens as it cools.

Crews pushed to get the first part of bridge work done over Otter Creek before winter set in. Officials are now using winter to demolition of the second half of the bridge. Excavation and installing of the stormwater drainage can and will continue through the winter months.

The PennDOT spokesman noted work to complete new concrete pedestrian tunnels beneath the roadway that connect the canal towpath in Tullytown was finished before winter set in.

The large project is being handled by contractor James D. Morrissey Inc. of Philadelphia.