NJ-PA's DRJTBC to concession out new I-95 Scudder Fall Bridge over Delaware River

A private concessionaire is almost certain to be sought now for a new bridge over the Delaware River at Scudder Falls a few miles upriver of Trenton NJ. The river is the boundary between Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The governors of the two states (Ed Rendell PA, Chris Christie NJ) have said they are directing the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) to pursue the $310m bridge project as a public private partnership or P3. This would likely involve a longterm private toll concession.

The board of the joint commission will assemble at a special meeting called on the Scudder Falls P3 August 17. An official said he'd heard no suggestion of dissent on the P3 and expected it would be approved at the meeting as the governors wish.

Pennsylvania commissioners serve "at the pleasure" of the governor, and New Jersey commissioners have only three year terms, so when the two governors agree, they're likely to get their way.

The statement quotes Gov Rendell: "This bridge is in critical need of improvement for safety reasons, and motorists who travel it are in dire need of relief from the daily bottleneck that it causes on I-95. By creating a public-private partnership, we can complete construction more quickly and efficiently, while allowing the Bridge Commission to focus on ongoing construction and maintenance projects on its other 19 bridges."

[TERMINOLOGY NOTE: The Scudder Falls Bridge is formally signed as I-95 but it is not really part of the great I-95 east coast route between Miami and Maine because a planned 25 mile, 40km segment Trenton to New Brunswick never got built. And when an interchange is built near the eastern end of the Pennsylvania Turnpike I-95 signs north and across the Scudder Falls Bridge are due to be removed.]

New Jersey's commissioner of transportation James Simpson is quoted: "As one of the heaviest-trafficked routes across the Delaware River, the Scudder Falls Bridge is in need of serious maintenance and modernization. In these difficult fiscal times, it is critical that we find creative ways to make improvements and deliver services that are efficient and cost-effective for taxpayers. This public-private partnership will provide exactly that type of solution to move forward with the improvements that are needed at Scudder Falls Bridge and provide relief to drivers on I-95.”

The joint governors' statement said that the first RFP will be for legal and financial services: "The winning team will assess the best structure for the deal based on a market analysis, and work with the DRJTBC on an RFP for design, building, financing and operating the new bridge. A team would then be chosen to complete the project and operate the bridge with Commission oversight."

Tolls of between $1 and $2 are envisaged for commuter vehicles and $4/axle for trucks.

"Without new tolls, existing DRJTBC tolls (on other bridges) would have to increase substantially, or Pennsylvania and New Jersey would need to subsidize the project, which neither state is capable of doing at this time," the governors' statement said.

Estimated costs are $132m for the new bridge, and $188m for reconstruction of interchanges and the highway on either side of the bridge.

Substandard undersized 1959 bridge to be removed

The present I-95 bridge at Scudder Falls was built in 1959. It is a tight 4-lane design with a  central median barrier but without shoulders. The river here is white water so only small recreational vessels  go underneath. The bridge is a simple steel I-beam girder on seven piers in the river.

Traffic is around 60k vehicles/day versus 48k to 54k often regarded as the 'capacity' of 4 lanes. However the bridge also has to handle traffic of interchanges located at both ends, so there is entering traffic needing to merge and exiting traffic trying to diverge from the mainline flows disrupting the traffic flow. Accel/decel lanes are almost non-existent. Indeed at a couple of points the merge is so abrupt they installed a STOP sign and a bar across the entry ramp.

The combination of overloaded through-lanes and inadequate merge/diverge lanes regularly generate delays of 15 and 20 minutes in peak hours - and about two hours of level of service (LOS) E and F peak hours in peak direction.

The substandard entries and exits at the interchanges force motorists to take risks on the merges and the incidence of crashes is well above normal - over 100 a year. Wrecks block a travel lane for longer periods because of  the lack of any shoulder. Fender-benders can create long backups.

The interchanges (ICs) on either bank of the river are just 1.03km (3380ft) apart measured center of IC to center of IC.

Bridge needs auxiliary lanes for closeby ramps

With interchanges that close continuous 'auxiliary' lanes are needed right across the river to handle the merge and diverge movements associated with the interchanges close to the banks .

The old bridge was determined to be not worth keeping because it was built to an old cheap design that provides no redundancy against failure of any of the major components.

It was one of the last riveted (rather than welded) I-beam girder designs.

Traffic now about 60k/day

The new bridge is designed to cater to traffic forecasts produced by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC). These suggested that bridge traffic would rise from the 2003 average of 59,500 vehicles/day (6% heavy trucks) to 76,500/day in 2030, the design year for a new bridge. That's a 29% increase.

Traffic flows are higher northbound into New Jersey where the jobs are mornings with the reverse peak south into Pennsylvania in the evenings. The splits are roughly 70%/30% NB mornings, and the same SB evenings.

Traffic modeling based on avoiding worse than LOS-D suggested 3 through lanes each direction on the bridge and two auxiliary lanes northbound and a single auxiliary lane southbound. That makes four motor vehicle lanes southbound and five northbound on the bridge. After  a lot of pressure from biking and hiking groups a bike and pedestrian lane has been added. In addition there are four full 3.65m, 12ft breakdown shoulders.

174ft of deck v 50ft

This makes it one wide bridge 53m, 174ft - actually two 26.5m, 87ft structures with a tiny gap between them, we're told, although he presentations and EIS show a single continuous deck. The plan is to build the southbound bridge first, on the upstream side of the existing bridge. When it is complete all traffic will be put on the southbound bridge while the existing bridge is demolished. After it is removed the northbound bridge will be built, and the final traffic pattern established.

George Alexandridis chief engineer at DRJTBC says that although the Commission's concept is of  steel girder bridge they'll be open to suggestions for an alternative; Longspan bridges such as cable stayed are likely unlikely to be cost-effective, but the Commission would be open to proposals involving segmental box girder construction. The new bridge will be about the same height and length as the existing bridge. It is 520m, 1700ft long with eight spans.

Alexandridis told us the new bridge will probably have one or two fewer spans than the old.

Criticism that traffic will drop when I-95 resigning occurs

By the time this bridge is opened it may no longer be signed as I-95. That's because when a new interchange is built between I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bristol PA about ten miles (16km) to the south of Scudder Falls, the I-95 signing will be added to the I-276 signs on the last few eastern miles of Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Delaware River.

I-95 signs will continue across the Delaware River onto the connecting spur called the Pearl Harbor Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike. The mainline of the Turnpike past Newark Airport.

New traffic study needed, plus revenue estimates for tolling

It is not clear to us that this I-95/I-276 Bristol interchange and the I-95 resigning will reduce traffic on the Scudder Falls Bridge.

Philadelphia to New York traffic doesn't seem to make much use of the bridge because it just leads to US1, a slow way to New York compared to the NJ Turnpike.

Rather traffic Philly-NYC is more inclined to cross the Delaware on the Ben Franklin Bridge and use US30/NJ70/I-295 or the Betsy Ross/NJ90/NJ73 to join the NJ Turnpike at IC 4 (Camden, MP34).

Or else they can travel US1 through Trenton/I-195 to the Turnpike at IC 7A (Trenton, MP60).

The opening of the Bristol interchange in three or four years time is more likely to take traffic from these three routes than from the Scudder Falls route.

But the new Scudder Falls Bridge will need a traffic and revenue study. (The draft EIS was finalized late last year.)

Our guess is the 2003 traffic forecasts for 2030 are likely to be revised downwards somewhat, mainly because of the economic crisis of 2007-9 and the subsequent malaise.

There's also the question of how much toling will reduce traffic.

The present bridge is untolled whereas of course the present bridged has to be tolled or it wouldn't get built.

The reduction in traffic from tolls may be small also. The main local alternate bridge - US1 in Trenton is tolled and heavily used and it doesn't seem likely to attract much traffic from Scudder Falls Bridge.

Future of US1 through Princeton

Hopefully one day US1 from the end of presently signed I-95 north of Trenton can be upgraded to expressway standard. It is presently access controlled and without left turns but lacks grade separations for the 25miles (40km) north through Princeton and New Brunswick to Edison and the Turnpike/I-287.

That long overdue upgrade, perhaps doable with another toll concession, would increase the value of the Scudder Falls Bridge route and provide a quality alternate route to the Turnpike south of its IC 10 (Edison, MP88).

http://scudderfallsbridge.com/

governors' statement:

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/P3Govs100730.doc

DRJTBC "Now and will be" document

http://www.tollroadsnews.com/sites/default/files/now&willbeDRJTBC100730.doc

TOLLROADSnews 2010-08-06