After about a year of work along the margins, a project to replace the Reading bridge that carries Schuylkill Avenue over railroad tracks is finally about to begin.
The 400 block of Schuylkill Avenue will be closed for almost two years, starting Feb. 17, while a PennDOT contractor replaces the bridge over the Norfolk Southern railway.
The $8.4 million project will replace the structurally deficient three-span structure, which was constructed in 1916, with a single-span composite prestressed concrete box-beam bridge, said Sean Brown, PennDOT district safety press officer.
Schuylkill Avenue will be raised to meet the 23-foot minimum vertical clearance requirement for the railroad, officials said.
Upon completion, the new bridge will allow for trains to travel through the underpass while carrying cargo containers stacked two-high — only one container currently can pass at a time.
Motorists who use that stretch as a north-south route through the northwestern section of the city have noticed work along both ends of the crossing since last spring, if not earlier.
Demolition of the structure, however, couldn’t begin until preliminary work was completed, Brown said. That work, including building demolition, utility relocations, ADA-compliant ramp/sidewalk construction and signal installation, required a lot of coordination between numerous entities, he said.
The latest projection has the detour continuing through fall 2026, Brown said.
Separate detours for pedestrians, passenger vehicles, tractor-trailers and secondary trucks have been established.
The proposed passenger vehicle detour is slightly more than a half-mile. It will follow West Greenwich Street, North Front Street and West Buttonwood Street.
The impact will be felt beyond Schuylkill Avenue, which is also designated as Route 183 (the 400 block runs southbound only).
Route 183 (the state route that also includes part of North Front Street) is classified as an urban arterial highway and carries 6,900 vehicles per day as well as a significant amount of pedestrian traffic.
To accommodate the detour, the two-block section of North Front Street between West Buttonwood and West Greenwich streets — currently one-way northbound for both lanes — will be temporarily converted to one lane in both directions during construction. For residents who live along North Front, Brown said, the new traffic pattern will impact some on-street parking.
The 5.3-mile large-truck detour will use Route 222 to Penn Street. A 1.3-mile secondary-truck detour will use West Greenwich, North Fourth and Washington streets.
For pedestrians, the detour will follow West Green, North Front and West Buttonwood streets, a distance of slightly less than a half-mile.
Source: Berkshire mont
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