New $17 Million Keim Street Bridge Project Outlined

Photos by Evan Brandt

The 749-foot Keim Street bridge over the Schuylkill River was closed in 2010. A $17 million replacement  was the subject of a thinly attended public meeting Wednesday evening.

One might think that after almost 10 years of closure, and ensuing complaints on social media, that details about a replacement might attract some interest, and an audience.

One might think that after running a story previewing that meeting on the front page of The Mercury, a story which is currently the third most read on The Mercury website, that the meeting organizers might have planned for overflow crowds and fire extinguishers for all the torches the angry mob would bring to the meeting.

This was the overflow crowd that showed up to learn more 

about replacing the Keim Street bridge. And let's remember that

most of the suits in the back are officials and engineers.

One would be wrong.

Instead, Matthew I. Hickson, structures project manager for Traffic Planning and Design, spoke to a largely empty room as he outlined the plan for the new structure.

By way of providing the answer to the most-asked question -- "what the f**k is taking so long?" -- he answered succinctly that "the federal government is providing 80 percent of the funding. And the federal rule book is a thick one."

Because the bridge, built in 1935, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, a deep well of federal bureaucracy had to be filled before plans for a replacement could get underway, Hickson said.

Matthew Hickson, from Traffic Planning and Design, said when its

finished, the new Keim Street bridge will have a traffic signal on

the Pottstown side on Industrial Highway.

First planners had to be determined if the bridge could be rehabilitated and saved.

A little under three years later, it was determined it could not and fulfill the mission of being wider, safer and no longer having a 22-ton weight limit. Besides, it would have been too expensive, he said.

Then it had to be determined if the structure could be used for another purpose, like a pedestrian bridge, and a new bridge built alongside. Again, too expensive. Chalk off another year or two.

Finally, alternatives had to be explored, like building an S-turn bridge that would align the entrance to the bridge with the intersection of South Keim Street and Industrial Highway.

Plans for the new Keim Street bridge.

That turned out to be not only too expensive, but also more likely to worsen flooding because although its just a 100 feet away, that intersection has a five or six feet lower elevation than the current entrance, said Daniel Bitterlich, also from Traffic Planning and Design.

In fact the design of the bridge has only four piers, some of them on a island in the middle of the Schuylkill, fewer than the seven on the current bridge.

Thus with only five spans, each 150-feet long, more water can flow under the bridge, reducing obstructions in the river, which in turn reduces flooding, Hickson explained.

Dealing with government jargon like this took 6 years.

Hickson said the project shortly should be exiting the "Section 106" process, which is the harmless-sounding name for all the historic bridge rigmarole that has has been holding things up, which will also allow for the completion of preliminary phase.

When all was said and done, getting through the "Section 106" process took "close to six years," Hickson said.

Towards the end of this year, the "final design" phase of the bridge can begin. That will take 18 months, putting us into 2021, which is when Hickson said he hoped the project, now estimated to cost about $17 million, can begin construction.

Because of tight quarters on the Pottstown side, construction will require traffic on Industrial Highway to be reduced to one lane.

The temporary traffic signals indicated on this map show how traffic will be controlled through the single lane that will be available during construction of the new Keim Street bridge.

Traffic lights on either side of the bridge entrance will act like flaggers, giving westbound and eastbound drivers, as well as southbound drivers on South Keim Street, their turn to drive by the site.

The existing bridge above, and what the new bridge
will look like, shown below.

When it's complete, the intersection will have a left- and right-turn lane onto the bridge as well as a permanent traffic signal.

As anyone who crossed the bridge before it closed knows, it was wicked narrow, only 20 feet wide curb to curb, with a five-foot sidewalk on the outside of the northern line of steel trusses.

The new bridge will have two 11-foot driving lanes, with two four-foot shoulders, as well as a six-foot sidewalk.

Ahhh, the luxury of wide lanes.

Portions of the Schuylkill River Trail blocking the bridge, which

were just installed last year, will have to be removed when the

new Keim Street bridge is construction.

So far, said Hickson, studies have indicated that although there is a wetland close-by that is a red-bellied turtle habitat, it is far enough away that it will not be disturbed by the bridge construction and thus is unlikely to cause any further delays.

(In 2012, a study of red-bellied turtles had plans for the new $14.5 million Route 345 bridge over the
Schuylkill River between Birdsboro and Exeter moving at a snail's pace.)

But that's not everything.

The project will also have to deal with the fact that the Schuylkill River Trail installed last year along Industrial Highway, and only finally opened last month, has blocked access to the bridge.

PennDOT plans on building a new bridge to carry South Keim Street

over Route 422, located just below the gray area
at the bottom of this map.

And there's even one more wrinkle.

Hickson said PennDOT has plans to also replace the South Keim Street bridge over Route 422, which is just beyond the bridge over the river.

Construction on that may even begin before the river bridge does.

As it is, no firm timeline for construction of the new bridge over the river has been set year, and if experience teaches us nothing else, it teaches us two things.

First, that it will take longer than early estimates predict. And second, that nothing will stop people from complaining about it, even if they can't be bothered to show up at a meeting on the subject.

Bridging the Gap