The Scudder Falls Bridge is a

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

that carries Interstate 295 (I-295) over the Delaware River, connecting Lower Makefield Township in

Bucks County Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, with the Scudders Falls section of Ewing Township in Mercer County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. It is maintained by the

Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) is a bistate, public agency that maintains and operates river crossings connecting the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The agency's jurisdiction stretches roughly along the Dela ...

(DRJTBC). The original bridge was a

plate girder bridge A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), ...

constructed from 1958 to 1961, and the current structure is a box-girder bridge that opened in 2019. Previously, the bridge was a toll-free crossing. However, this changed on July 14, 2019, when an all-electronic toll was levied for Pennsylvania-bound traffic; the toll can be paid using E-ZPass or

Toll-by-Plate Video tolling (sometimes referred to as video billing, toll by plate, pay by mail, or pay by plate) is a form of electronic toll collection, which uses video or still images of a vehicle's license plate to identify a vehicle liable to pay a road ...

. A $534 million replacement project for the bridge was completed, which involved widening I-295 in the area from four lanes to eight, and reconstruction of the interchanges at both ends of the bridge. The first span of the new bridge opened to Pennsylvania-bound traffic on July 10, 2019. New Jersey-bound traffic was moved onto the new span on July 24, 2019, and demolition of the old span began afterwards. As well, a

shared-use path A shared-use path, mixed-use path or multi-use pathway is a path which is 'designed to accommodate the movement of pedestrians and cyclists'. Examples of shared-use paths include sidewalks designated as shared-use, bridleways and rail trails. A ...

for bicycle and foot-traffic opened on November 16, 2021.

Name

The Scudder Falls Bridge derives its name from Richard Betts Scudder, who according to the Long Island Genealogy Surname Database, died in 1754 at " Scudders Falls,

Hunterdon County Hunterdon County is a county located in the western section of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 128,947, making it the state's 18th-most populous county,Mercer County were part of Hunterdon County until 1838). One of Richard Scudder's ancestors from

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was named Henry Skudder. The ''k'' in the surname apparently became a ''c'' at some point in time, helping to give the falls and modern-day bridge its name. The "falls" (really just an area of rapids) are located about 1/2 mile north of the bridge, and the entrance to the

Delaware and Raritan Canal The Delaware and Raritan Canal (D&R Canal) is a canal in central New Jersey, built in the 1830s, that served to connect the Delaware River to the Raritan River. It was an efficient and reliable means of transportation of freight between Philadelp ...

State Park just north of the bridge is signed as the "Scudders Falls" unit. The extra ''s'' at the end of "Scudders" was dropped to make pronunciation of the bridge's name easier.

Original bridge

Following the destruction of the Yardley–Wilburtha Bridge in the August flood of 1955, plans were made to build a new bridge about north of the old site. The DRJTBC was responsible for the construction of the bridge, while New Jersey and Pennsylvania built the approaches to each side. Because the bridge was not originally part of the

Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. T ...

, the cost of construction was not 90% covered by the federal government. Instead, they covered 50% of the cost of the new span, while New Jersey and Pennsylvania paid the remaining 50% of the total bill, as with an ordinary U.S. Highway route. In April 1958, the location of the future Scudder Falls Bridge was approved with little opposition. Construction, overseen by the DRJTBC, began in May of the same year and was completed in 1959. The new bridge, which had cost $8.4 million, opened to traffic on June 22, 1961. The Yardley-Wilburtha Bridge was rebuilt as a temporary crossing before the Scudder Falls Bridge began being built. It was completely torn down in 1961 when the Scudder Falls Bridge opened. The bridge was built using two-span continuous steel-plate girders. Its two end spans were each long, while each of the eight middle spans measured . The bridge consisted of a roadway wide, split into four twelve-foot lanes. Opposing traffic was separated by a

Jersey barrier A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...

. The bridge's total length was . The Scudder Falls Bridge originally carried

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

over the Delaware River. In March 2018, I-95 was renumbered to I-295 across the bridge as part of the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project that completed the gap in I-95.

Replacement bridge

Starting in 2003, the DRJTBC began working on plans to replace the bridge, improve the safety and traffic flow of its two immediately adjoining interchanges (Taylorsville Road in Pennsylvania and Route 29 in New Jersey), and widen the Pennsylvania approach to the bridge (from four lanes to six). The project was deemed necessary because the original configurations of the bridge, interchanges and roadways suffered from numerous inadequacies. Current design standards call for, at minimum, the addition of an inside shoulder wide (adding to its current width) and an outside shoulder wide (adding to its current width). The closely spaced interchanges on both ends of the bridge require the addition of acceleration and deceleration lanes (the Commission refers to them as "auxiliary lanes"), of which there are currently none. According to the DRJTBC's 2002 Southerly Crossings Corridor Study, the Scudder Falls Bridge carries roughly 55,000 vehicles per day (traffic counts have increased since then), well beyond the design load of 40,000 vehicles per day. By 2030, traffic volumes are expected to increase by 35%, the equivalent of 19,000 additional vehicles. This amount of traffic would require two to perhaps four additional travel lanes (24 to 48 additional feet of roadway width). According to the project's Environmental Assessment, the new bridge will have two additional through-travel lanes, resulting in a total of six through lanes (three in each direction). Also mentioned by the 2002 study is that Scudder Falls Bridge has been given a Level of Service (LOS) grade of "F" during peak rush hours and afternoons. This grade denotes the worst service conditions and the highest congestion rate. At times other than brief rush hour delays, traffic traveling the bridge is relatively light. The condition of the bridge has also been a growing concern in recent years. Even though routine inspections in recent years have not revealed any serious structural problems, the bridge is over 50 years old and is likely deteriorating rapidly. The bridge is also similar in design to the Mianus River Bridge in

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

, which suffered a fatal collapse in 1983. The replacement bridge will consist of six through-travel lanes and three auxiliary lanes (two in the New Jersey-bound direction and one in the Pennsylvania-bound direction) to handle traffic accelerating onto the bridge or decelerating off of the bridge at the two closely spaced adjoining interchanges. It will also have shoulders to handle vehicle breakdowns and emergencies, with the two inside shoulders being wide enough to handle proposed regional bus-rapid transit service. A bicycle/pedestrian facility will be added to the upstream side of the new bridge. On July 10, 2019, the upstream span of the new bridge opened to Pennsylvania-bound traffic. New Jersey-bound traffic remained on the original span until July 24, after which demolition of the original span began and construction of the new downstream span will begin. To help finance this multi-faceted improvement project, the DRJTBC voted in late December 2009 to establish tolling at the crossing. Tolls were implemented on July 14, 2019, four days after the new bridge span opened to traffic. Tolls are collected from traffic crossing into Pennsylvania, with an all-electronic toll gantry consisting of E-ZPass transponder readers and high-resolution cameras (no cash toll booths) constructed on the bridge. The DRJTBC has stated that the introduction of cashless tolling at the bridge is necessary to help finance its capital program, of which the multi-faceted Scudder Falls Bridge Replacement Project would be its largest single construction initiative in its 75-year history. The commission is funded solely by tolls collected at its eight current toll bridges; it receives no gasoline tax revenues or state or federal support. Commission executives have stated that it would be unfair to have the project financed solely by motorists using its other toll bridges, individuals who have been subsidizing the Scudder Falls facility already for more than two decades. The shared-use path on the bridge is the only one of its kind across the Delaware River crossing from Pennsylvania-to-New Jersey, in that it allows cyclists to ride across without dismounting. This bridge also restores pedestrian/cyclist access to cross the bridge in the Yardley area, which had been previously unavailable since the 1955 destruction of the Yardley-Wilburtha bridge.

References

External links

DRJTBC: Scudder Falls Toll Supported BridgeScudder Falls Bridge Improvement Project
{{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place = Delaware River , bridge = Scudder Falls Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = Washington Crossing Bridge , upstream signs = , downstream = Yardley–Wilburtha Bridge , downstream signs = ''demolished'' Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission 1961 establishments in New Jersey 1961 establishments in Pennsylvania Bridges completed in 1961 Bridges in Mercer County, New Jersey Bridges over the Delaware River Ewing Township, New Jersey Interstate 95 Bridges in Bucks County, Pennsylvania Road bridges in New Jersey Road bridges in Pennsylvania Bridges on the Interstate Highway System Steel bridges in the United States Plate girder bridges in the United States Interstate vehicle bridges in the United States Tolled sections of Interstate Highways

Name

Original bridge

Replacement bridge

See also

References

External links