PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — You and your brake pedal will become awfully friendly this week. But as a payback, you'll soon be able to finally take an off-ramp that's had a two-year closure.
PennDOT says drivers should be able to take the newly reconstructed Girard Avenue off-ramp from southbound I-95. The ramp is scheduled to be re-opened on Saturday.
“I’d expect them to open the ramp sometime early Saturday morning, very early Saturday morning,” PennDOT spokesman Brad Rudolph told KYW Newsradio. “That will allow you to get off at Girard if you’re heading [on] southbound 95.”
PennDOT announced several travel restrictions that will most certainly add to the congestion until the re-opening.
On Thursday, between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., I-95 southbound will experience lane closures and periodic 15-minute traffic stoppages. Crews will be installing overhead signs between the Betsy Ross Bridge and the I-676 interchanges.
Then on Friday, starting at 8 p.m. through 5 a.m., that section of I-95 will have double lane closures and stoppages while workers rebuild the southbound traffic pattern between the interchanges of Allegheny and Girard avenues.
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Simultaneously, the Aramingo Avenue and Allegheny Avenue ramps to I-95 south will be closed. Drivers will be detoured south on Aramingo and Delaware avenues to Callowhill Street, Second Street and the southbound on-ramp at Market Street.
Drivers getting off at Girard looking to use Aramingo Avenue to get to Delaware Avenue will have to be a little more patient.
“That spur at Aramingo Avenue will eventually reopen, probably next weekend,” Rudolph said. For now, Rudolph recommended that drivers take Girard to Columbia Avenue to connect with Delaware Avenue.
Plan accordingly, PennDOT advises, and give yourself extra time to get around.
Construction will continue through 2022, so keep an eye out for future temporary closures and detours.
The Girard Avenue on-ramp to southbound 95 was rebuilt in stages and didn’t close to traffic. The reconstruction is part of PennDOT’s decades-long, $2 billion project to rebuild I-95 through Philadelphia.