Via Ray:
The demolition and rebuilding of the bridge requires the complete closure of the structure between Convention Avenue and 27th Street, including the on-and-off-ramps connecting South Street and I-76.
Here's a map of the affected area:
Given that there are a total of seven bridges over the river as well as the Vine Street Expressway, closing just one of the bridges over the Schuylkill may not seem like a big deal. The University of Pennsylvania is like a small city of its own, and the South Street bridge is the main access point for most people going to Penn. This not only includes the students and faculty, but also the patients, doctors and support personnel at the two major medical centers, HUP and CHOP.
Getting from the Schuylkill Expressway to Penn and back will require people to use either University Ave. or (gulp) 30th Street, one of the worst laid-out and consistently jammed interchanges you'll ever see. Just as bad, the South Street bridge supports foot, and bicycle and bus traffic [update: see comments] between West Philly and Center City/South Philly. All the people who walk and many of the people who now bicycle will have to go around the blockage, further packing buses that are already crowded and which will run more slowly because of the increased vehicle traffic over the remaining bridges. The entertainment businesses on both sides of the river that depend on people being able to freely move between neighborhoods will suffer.
Buses have already been diverted off of the South Street Bridge for at least the past year. It makes it nearly a door-to-door trip for me to take the 40 to and from school. :)
But it will be a real mess until the bridge is opened again, this is true, because now even the diverted buses will be dealing with more car and bike traffic than they were while the bridge remained open.
Posted by: Glomarization | November 21, 2008 at 01:35 PM