Schuylkill Crossing Open House Recap
An Open House meeting was held on January 5th to collect comments from the public on the selected option for the crossing at Grays Ferry: a new movable swing bridge. Information boards were displayed in the Coach Room of Bartram’s Garden from 4:40 to 7:30pm. Representatives from FHWA, PennDoT, Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, SRDC, Lewis Berger (designers), McCormick-Taylor (environmentalists) and Ted Agoos (architect) were present to discuss the project details.
Between 50 and 75 people attended the event and engaged in constructive dialogue with the design team. Virtually everyone welcomed the idea of connecting the two sides of the river at this location. An overwhelming majority endorsed the project as presented. Some attendees asked for a wider deck on the structure and the team said they will evaluate the appropriate width. The most frequent comment was to expedite the schedule to allow the communities to link to the other side of the river as soon as possible.
The design team will need to mitigate the loss of the existing swing bridge. Several options are being considered including: Reuse of the structure elsewhere, temporary storage of the existing truss, displaying salvaged pieces, interpretive signs, and recordation of aging structures in the City’s inventory.
Final design is continuing and it is hoped construction could start this year. We thank everyone who attended the public meeting and provided feedback. To learn more about the Schuylkill Crossing, click here.
