For Immediate Release

July 20^th, 2022

Ridley Park Borough Hall

On July 20^th at 2PM the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation shut down the Sellers Avenue Bridge, a designated state highway, to all forms of traffic.  Ridley Park Borough was not notified of the closure and was only made aware when members of the community began to see “Bridge Closed” signs being erected on the bridge. This closure is for the safety of all parties since there is increased deterioration to structural beams.

The Sellers Avenue Bridge was closed without the consultation or consideration of the Borough of Ridley Park. PennDOT has communicated that this is for the safety and wellbeing of our community.  This does not mean that as a Borough we are going to stop advocating for the immediate replacement of the Sellers Avenue Bridge.

For over a decade PennDOT and Amtrak have talked about replacing this outdated and deteriorating structure, for a more modern and safer bridge. During that decade, the Borough has been working on behalf of residents, business owners and community stakeholders. Yet, over that decade the Borough has been at the mercy of these two organizations when it came to design, funding, indemnification and most importantly its abrupt closure of the bridge.

The bridge has seen several restrictions over the years including orange barricades designed to allow pedestrians to cross the bridge safely. This action was taken over eight years ago and still a timetable of replacement was not provided. In the most recent six-month period, the weight limit of the bridge saw multiple downgrades to the amount of tonnage that is allowed on the bridge with the last being, a total of three tons. Also in the last six months, there was the installation of an “All Way Stop” on the bridge from E Hinckley Avenue, E Ridley Avenue, and Ward Avenue. This new traffic pattern created a bottleneck on the downgraded bridge which caused two to three cars to be stopped on the bridge at any one time.

Since 2018 Ridley Park Borough has continuously been working to get all the stakeholders at the table and find out how to move this project forward to completion. Over months of meetings with PennDOT, Amtrak, SEPTA, local, state, and federal officials the design phase of the project is nearing completion and the bidding of this project is scheduled to begin in January 2023. In July of this year, the Borough was informed that utility relocation and preconstruction work was to start in October of this year.

Ridley Park Borough is deeply disappointed in the lack of urgency, communication on the structural stability and inability to inform its residents in a timely manner before the abrupt closure. The Borough will continue to push for this project to be escalated to be replaced immediately.

Mayor Hank Eberle and Council President Dane Collins