All eight traffic lanes on the Delaware Memorial Bridge will be open in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
“This is the conclusion of a multi-year, $71 million project to redeck the northbound span of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. It's on budget and ahead of schedule,” said Delaware River and Bay Authority Executive Director Tom Cook.
He calls this the most comprehensive deck overlay in the northbound span’s 72 year history.
The project involved the removal and replacement of the top 2 inches of the bridge’s deck slabs with an Ultra High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) overlay.
Gil Brindley is the Director of UHPC Solutions, the contractor doing the work. He says this project is the first of its kind.
“It's the first time that this material was used on a major bridge in the United States. It's 2 inches thick. It's the largest application of UHPC ever at nearly 5,000 cubic yards of material,” he explained.
The Delaware River and Bay Authority says UHPC is stronger and more affordable than other products- and helped reduce construction time.
The new deck overlay is expected to last for at least 75 years.
The need for the bridge repair was identified in 2018, and the project was split into three phases that started in September 2022.
All three phases brought intermittent lane closures.
The Delaware Memorial Bridge northbound lanes will all be open again starting Tuesday, November 21st.
