PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Martin Luther King Jr. Drive has been closed since March 20, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which gave people a wider range to enjoy outdoor activities.
According to the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability, it will remain closed until at least spring 2021.
City data shows roughly a 1,300% increase in pedestrian use along the drive — up from an average of 500 people on a pre-pandemic weekday, to more than 5,000 now.
“Demand from the public has been demonstrated in terms of the number of people who have used it, so there’s certainly been a good group of folks who have taken advantage of it,” said Mike Carroll, deputy managing director of the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability.
“Some jogging, walking, riding bikes, fact that it’s adjacent to the river, and there’s a trail there gives people the opportunity if they want to hang out a little bit, and do other exercises, or throw a Frisbee around. There is plenty of spaces near the drive where that is possible.”
Carroll said the closure also allows the city to conduct some upgrades on the 4.3-mile trail along the Schuylkill River.
“We’ve got essentially a desire to reconstruct certain portions of the trail itself,” he explained. “There’s a fair amount of deterioration that’s taken place over the years that we want to address.
“Also, we’ve taken the opportunity to upgrade a number of the lighting circuits along the trails. Some of the lights just haven’t been functioning properly, so we … can repair those lights and get the amount of illumination that we need both for trail users and for people who are traveling along MLK.”
The drive itself will be resurfaced in conjunction with PennDOT. Carroll said keeping it closed will allow that work to get done faster — and possibly, cheaper.