South Street Bridge will close on Monday

The South Street Bridge will close at 9:30 a.m. on Monday so Driscoll Construction Company can begin its projected two-year reconstruction of the bridge.

Since the entire structure will be demolished, no traffic - cars, bicycles or pedestrians - will be able to use the bridge after Monday morning.

A final walking and bicycling procession across the bridge has been scheduled for Monday morning at 8:45 a.m., according to a Tuesday announcement by Marcia Wilkof, Democratic leader of the 30th Ward, and Jim Campbell, president of the South Street Bridge Coalition.

All who wish to participate should meet Wilkof and Campbell on the south side of the Bridge at Hollenbeck Hall.

Most of the usual traffic across the South Street Bridge can be diverted to the Walnut and Chestnut Street bridges, according to an ongoing traffic study by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

Traffic congestion expected to get worse on the Schuylkill Expressway and the 34th Street Bridge.

As a result of the South Street Bridge closure, SEPTA has changed the route of the 12 bus to run over the University Avenue Bridge and drop off passengers on Spruce Street between 33rd and 38th streets.

Although the city has been planning the reconstruction since 1995, it has been delayed repeatedly because the project had to be coordinated with so many other organizations, according to the Philadelphia Streets Department's Web site.

Beginning in 2009, Wilkof and Campbell will "design a process for considering changes to the portion of the towers above the road deck," according to its announcement on Tuesday.

Information about the bridge closure, including detour routes, can be found on a city Web site - phila.gov/southstreetbridge - or through the Penn's Division of Public Safety Web site, publicsafety.upenn.edu/ssbridge.

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