Delaware City --
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Philadelphia District
For Immediate Release
Contact: Richard Pearsall
Phone: 215-656-6032
E-mail: richard.g.pearsall@usace.army.mil

Inspection and construction activity will resume on the Reedy Point Bridge Monday, February 25, necessitating the closure of one lane of traffic. Traffic flow will be regulated during that time with temporary traffic signals.

Workers will close one lane of traffic by 7 AM on Monday, February 25, and begin preparing the bridge for sandblasting and painting. Painting will resume once the weather has turned consistently warmer. Work is expected to continue throughout the spring.

Originally scheduled to be completed last year, the project, which involves steel repairs as well as painting, has been expanded from a $7-million to a $10-million project to include the approach spans as well as the main span of the 44-year-old bridge.

The work will necessitate full closure of the bridge for two, one-week periods this spring, the dates for which have yet to be determined.

Corcon Construction, of Lowellville, Ohio, is performing the work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The company has been carrying out concrete and steel repairs to welds, other deteriorated steel members and the wind linkage (metal connecting the approach span to the main span of the bridge), as well as removal of lead paint and application of new corrosion protection.

The Reedy Point Bridge crosses the east end of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal between Delaware City and Port Penn, Delaware. The last major repairs to the bridge were made in 1999 when $888,000 was spent on miscellaneous steel repairs. In 1995, $2.5 million was spent on anchor and deck span repairs and painting. The bridge was originally constructed in 1969.

For more information on the Philadelphia District's work, visit the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on Facebook.