Calhoun St. Bridge upgrade, Web site

From the BCCT.

Calhoun St. Bridge to be upgraded, gets own Web site
A new Web page will update the public on the project’s progress.
By GEORGE MATTAR

Cross the Calhoun Street Bridge in your travels? Be prepared for some traffic headaches when a major rehabilitation begins later this year.

To ease the pain, the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission announced Thursday it has launched a Web page to keep the public informed of the project. The bridge links Trenton and Morrisville across the Delaware River. [Link to web page here.]

While the project is in the preliminary design phase, the commission is dedicating a specific page on its public Web site due to the volume of commuters who use the bridge, said commission spokesman Joe Donnelly.

“We also set up a Web page because of the anticipated community interest,” Donnelly said.

The executive director of the commission, Frank G. McCartney, said the Calhoun Street Bridge rehabilitation will be challenging.

“This Web page is a manifestation of the commission’s intent to keep the public informed and involved with the decision-making process as this project goes forward.”

The project will include replacement of the superstructure floor system; repair of iron trusses, the substructure and approach roadways; and improvements to the rails and sidewalk, Donnelly said.

The goal is for work to begin late this year, with completion in late 2010.

The bridge, included on the National Register of Historical Places, opened for travel on Oct. 20, 1884, and is 1,274 feet long. It is a Phoenix Pratt truss with a timber plank pedestrian sidewalk supported by the upriver truss on steel cantilever brackets. It is the longest through-truss bridge in the commission’s 20 bridge inventory and the only one built completely of wrought iron.

The Calhoun Street Bridge has a 3-ton weight limit, an 8-foot vertical clearance and a 15 mph speed limit. In 2007, an average 18,500 vehicles used the bridge each day.