King of Prussia Road closed/detoured…
By JOHN M. ROMAN
jroman@delcotimes.com
RADNOR – About 16,000 vehicles a day use the tiny stone bridge on King of Prussia Road spanning the Gulph Creek, PennDOT says, but you’d hardly think that after the morning rush hour.
PennDOT shut down the bridge to traffic about 7 p.m. Monday and started working to repair the crumbling stone masonry bridge at the intersection of Gulph Creek Road at 6 a.m. Tuesday.
As a result, traffic is being detoured at Pine Tree/Eagle roads on the northern end of King of Prussia Road and at Matsonford Road on the southern end while the bridge is being repaired the next three to four weeks.
The 75-year-old bridge located between Biddulph and Gulph Creek Road was closed down because of severe damage to a wing wall that supports the roadway approach to the bridge. The damaged portion of the wall is 12 feet wide by 12 feet high.
A posted detour takes King of Prussia through traffic over Matsonford Road, Route 320, South Gulph Road and Croton Road.
“Safety is first and foremost in all aspects of our operation and the precarious state of this bridge wall requires us to take this emergency action,” said PennDOT District Executive Lester Toaso.
PennDOT aims to reopen the road “as soon as possible,” he said.
John Bush, PennDOT’s assistant county maintenance manager, was at the scene supervising eight workers. A huge crane was shoveling up large rocks from the bridge wall and spilling them into a dump truck. The retaining wall essentially failed Monday when PennDOT discovered it, he said.
Bush said PennDOT was at the scene Friday when “it wasn’t nearly as bad” and weatherwise the weekend was actually nice. “So showing up on Monday was very much a surprise.”
PennDOT got a letter from its bridge unit to do some work over there and started clearing out the area to get some equipment down in that area and came back Monday and “saw that it had collapsed.
“We’re going to do a concrete wall,” Bush said. “We’re waiting for the sketch from district (headquarters)” and then will build a new wall on both sides.
The estimated cost of the repairs is about $100,000 said PennDOT spokesman Charles Metzger. Deficiencies were found on both sides of the bridge approach, he said.
King of Prussia Road is a main artery to Eastern University and Cabrini College, which are located about a block above the north end of the bridge. It is also a major connection to the Blue Route exit/entrance (Exit 13) at Lancaster Avenue (Route 30).
Matsonford Road east of King of Prussia Road leads to Archbishop Carroll High School, Radnor Elementary School and the sprawling Radnor Corporate Center. Radnor High School on King of Prussia Road is less than a mile south of the Matsonford Road detour.
Dave Leonard, 45, of Schwenksville and formerly of Secane, a driver for FedEx, was making deliveries at the Radnor Corporate Center. He said he usually leaves his station in King of Prussia and goes down King of Prussia Road, but now he has to go to the Schuylkill Expressway and up Matsonford Road.
He estimated that the detour would be at least 15-20 minutes out of his way. He also delivers to all the residents behind the corporate center.
Leonard said he believes the road detour/closing will cause traffic to back up to the schools during the morning rush hour.
Gabrielle Kempton, 20, of Gorham, Maine, a sophomore at Eastern University, said, “the only reason I go down there (King of Prussia Road) is to get on I-476 to go north or south.
“It’s not a huge inconvenience,” she said. “I know it will back up traffic at rush hour.”
Stacy Starry, who is finishing up a master’s degree program in multi-cultural education at Eastern, came to school from Boyertown, Berks County. She said she uses King of Prussia Road to get to the university. Fortunately the detour doesn’t prohibit her from turning into the campus.
“I came from King of Prussia near the mall and then saw the detour sign and followed the detour sign,” she said. It only took her out of her way about five or 10 minutes after the morning rush hour.
Crishaw Nelson, 20, of Philadelphia, a sophomore at Eastern, said, “it does affect me if I have to go to the mall and get something to eat.
“We get out of school in a week and a half so it won’t be too bad,” he said. He added he usually uses the Blue Route (I-476) to the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76) to reach Philadelphia.