If you dey plan to cross from Philadelphia go Camden or come back this weekend, make you change your plan. The Ben Franklin Bridge wey connect Philly and Camden go close for vehicular traffic on Saturday, July 11, because the Delaware River Port Authority dey celebrate the bridge im 100th anniversary.
The closure go affect the Camden side of the bridge, and according to DRPA, the bridge go remain close for the whole duration of the event. So if you need to take your car between the city and suburbs on Saturday, you get other options. You fit use the Walt Whitman Bridge wey connect Gloucester City to Philadelphia, or the Betsy Ross Bridge wey connect Pennsauken to Philadelphia. If you no want drive at all, or you just need quick trip across the Delaware, the PATCO line also dey available. Full list of stops and timetables dey on PATCO website.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia dey prepare for MLB All-Star Week, wey go bring plenty road closures and parking restrictions. The event go start on Friday at Citizens Bank Park with the HBCU Swingman Classic, featuring 50 players from Division 1 historically Black colleges and universities. Road closures go begin Friday afternoon around Sixth and Market Streets for the Budweiser Clydesdales Hitch Parade. The closures go affect Fifth and Sixth Streets from Arch to Walnut Streets, Market and Chestnut Streets from Fourth to Seventh Streets, and Ranstead and Sansom Streets from Sixth to Seventh Streets. Philadelphia police fit add more closures for public safety. All roads affected go be temporary no-parking zones, and any vehicle wey park for those areas during closure go be moved. Drivers wey get their car moved suppose contact the police district where the vehicle was parked.
The city also announce that the Philadelphia Independence Visitor Center go close to public from noon on Tuesday. To help fans wey dey go Citizens Bank Park, SEPTA go run six additional express trains on the Broad Street Line to NRG Station before and after the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game on Monday and Tuesday. Free rides from NRG Station go dey available after the second round of the Home Run Derby on Monday, and after the sixth inning of the All-Star Game on Tuesday.
The Ben Franklin Bridge, wey open in 1926, na one of the busiest transportation links for Northeast corridor. E carry millions of vehicles each year and the PATCO commuter rail lines. The chief engineer of the bridge na Polish-born Ralph Modjeski, wey found the firm now known as Modjeski and Masters. The bridge don last 100 years because of continuous inspection, preservation, rehabilitation, and modernization. According to Mike Britt, President and CEO of Modjeski and Masters, longevity no just happen by accident; e require decades of investment, adaptation, and commitment from the people responsible for building, maintaining, and improving these assets.
As America look to the next century of transportation infrastructure, the lesson from the Ben Franklin Bridge and Ambassador Bridge na say sustained attention to preservation, modernization, resilience, and quality execution dey key. The bridge wey start as a defining engineering achievement of early 20th century still dey relevant because e don dey maintained and adapted over decades.
