Route 13 Project Completion Date Pushed Back By Several Months

The completion date for the 4.3-mile Route 13 project has been pushed back once again.

Multiple officials have confirmed to LevittownNow.com that the completion date has been pushed from July 1 to October 10. PennDOT spokesperson Charles Metzger said the postponement comes with no additional cost to taxpayers and was negotiated by the project contractor, James D. Morrissey Inc.

The project’s website, Safer13.com, showed a message Thursday that blamed the delay on “unforeseen conditions encountered during the past two construction seasons that have negatively impacted the project schedule.”

Metzger said the biggest problem was improperly marked utilities, mainly between Green Lane and Levittown Parkway, that caused Morrissey to negotiate a new end day for the Route 13 revamp that began in March 2013. The problems with utility markers involves contractors finding electric, water, cable and traffic light connections in spots they weren’t supported to be, at least according to maps of the buried utilities. In response, crews spent months extra relocating the utilities so they would be in the correct locations.

According to Metzger, the contractor’s delay will not cost taxpayers any more than the $36 million already budgeted for the work. If Morrissey did not negotiate an amended competition date, they would have owed PennDOT money for not finishing the project on time.

The relocation of the utilities delayed work by about one full season, Metzger said. In addition, a bitter winter in 2014 caused numerous days of lost work for crews, officials have said previously.

The northern part of the project is mostly completed and work continues on the southern end, which is between Green Lane and Veterans Highway (Route 413.) The bulk of the work includes working on the median, left lanes, curbs and sidewalks.

With nearly all the utility relocation work done, contractors have completed the linked traffic signal system that will stretch Route 13 through Bristol Borough, Bristol Township and Tullytown. The new system is expected to be live once the entire project is completed.

Along much of Route 13, asphalt has replaced the recognizable tan concrete road surface that made up most of Route 13. PennDOT’s plans called for shifting to asphalt from concrete for the project due to its lower cost and ease of maintenance and repair, officials have previously stated.

The goal behind the road work is to make the heavily-used roadway friendlier for pedestrians, businesses and commuters.

Gone will be the jug handles at many of the roadways intersections. In their place, left turn lanes will be added.

“I think it has the potential to change the character of Route 13 from a kind of industrial highway to a more commercial parkway,” Tom Kerins of Urban Engineers Inc., the construction manager on the project, said in September.

Metzger said he anticipates no more major delays in the completion of the project.