BRIDGEPORT, November 4, 2009 – Last weekend, state Senator Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) and Governor Ed Rendell teamed up for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new DeKalb Street Bridge in Bridgeport, Montgomery County.
"The new DeKalb Street Bridge will make travel across the Schuylkill River safer and easier," Leach said. "I know firsthand that the closure was inconvenient, and I appreciate the community's patience."
The $8.4 million DeKalb Street Bridge renovation took nearly two years and included placing two lanes in each direction and shoulders on both sides of the bridge, widening the west-side shoulder to accommodate the future Chester Valley Trail extension, and adding lights that are consistent with Bridgeport Borough's streetscape project.
The project also improved the traffic signals at the intersections of DeKalb Street (Route 202 North) with Route 23 (4th Street) and Front Street. The new bridge will move more than 28,000 vehicles per day.
During the ceremony, Gov. Rendell said, "Today we open this impressive new bridge and restore a critical traffic link between Bridgeport and Norristown. The new DeKalb Street Bridge will benefit commuters and local businesses for years to come and it is a vast improvement from the 80-year-old, structurally deficient span it replaced.”
According to Gov. Rendell’s office, the old DeKalb Street Bridge was built in 1928 by the Reading Railroad Company. The railroad company owned the bridge until PennDOT assumed ownership in 1996.
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