PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Many riders on SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line will be inconvenienced starting Sunday, when work begins to rehab an aging bridge in Bridgeport.
Starting Sunday, SEPTA will run shuttle buses on the Norristown end of the M Line, formerly called the Norristown High Speed Line. The 115-year-old Bridgeport viaduct carries the M over the Schuylkill River, and SEPTA General Manager Scott Sauer said while the bridge is safe, structural repairs are needed.
"What this kind of work does for us is it ensures that we never get to a place where we have to stop running service on this bridge,” he said. “We want to make these repairs and make these investments before we get to that criticality where we have to decide whether or not a train can run."
Under the $55 million project, Sauer said repairs will be made to the concrete abutments and the bridge deck. A maintenance catwalk and the stairway to the Norristown Transit Center will also be replaced. Trains will run as usual between Bridgeport and 69th Street, but as the work is complete, buses will run between Bridgeport and the Norristown Transit Center until May 9. That will affect about 1,000 riders who cross the bridge each weekday.
