Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania.html



Delaware Expressway Main route of the Interstate Highway System
Length:	51.08 mi1 (82.21 km)
South end:	I-95/Wilmington Expressway near Marcus Hook
Major junctions:	I-476 in Chester I-76 in Philadelphia I-676/US 30 in Philadelphia
North end:	I-95/Scudder Falls Bridge near Yardley
Pennsylvania State Routes < PA 94 PA 95 > Minor - Legislative

Interstate 95 in the state of Pennsylvania, officially known as the Delaware Expressway² and locally known as "95,"³ runs for 51 miles from the Delaware state line near Marcus Hook to the New Jersey state line crossing the Delaware River near Yardley. It parallels its namesake Delaware River for its entire route through the city of Philadelphia and its suburbs. It is a major route through the city and the metropolitan Delaware Valley, providing access to locally important landmarks such as Philadelphia International Airport, the Philadelphia Sports Complex, Penn's Landing, and Franklin Mills.

The road is among the busiest in the Commonwealth, second only to the Schuylkill Expressway. An estimated 169,000 motorists utilize the road daily.⁴

Route description

I-95 southwest of Philadelphia

Interstate 95 enters Pennsylvania from Delaware near Marcus Hook, just north of its junction with the northern end of Interstate 495. It runs through the city of Chester, interchanging with the southern end of Interstate 476 at the edge of the city. It continues in an eastward direction paralleling Pennsylvania Route 291 through the suburbs of Essington and Tinicum, to a large interchange with PA 291 and Philadelphia International Airport. East of the airport, I-95 crosses the Schuylkill River on the double-decker Girard Point Bridge.⁵

I-95 southbound through Center City Philadelphia.

East of the river, I-95 continues east into South Philadelphia as an elevated freeway, passing south of the Philadelphia Sports Complex and north of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The road then curves north, following the bend in the Delaware River, and runs along the waterfront interchanging with Interstate 76 and the Walt Whitman Bridge. The elevated roadway gradually lowers to a depressed level approaching Center City, where it passes through several short tunnels at Penn's Landing, passes under the Ben Franklin Bridge, and interchanges with the Vine Street Expressway (Interstate 676). North of Center City, the SEPTA Market-Frankford Line rises up from the Market Street subway into I-95's median as the highway returns to an elevated alignment, entering one station (Spring Garden) before diverging once more. I-95 continues through Northeast Philadelphia, interchanging with the Betsy Ross Bridge, Pennsylvania Route 73 at the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, and the Woodhaven Road expressway (Pennsylvania Route 63) before crossing the county line into Bucks County.⁵

North of the city, I-95 interchanges with a short expressway stub to Pennsylvania Route 413, a remnant of the unbuilt Interstate 895.⁶ It continues north past the future site of the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project, where it currently passes over the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 276); remarkably, the two highways were not built to connect with one another. North of I-276, I-95 interchanges with U.S. Route 1, and crosses the Delaware River into New Jersey on the Scudder Falls Bridge.⁵This current bridge structure, while structurally sufficient, is functionally obsolete, and it requires major expansion or replacement.

History

Plans for a limited-access highway along the Delaware River originated in 1932, as part of a proposed cars-only parkway system for the Philadelphia area similar to the contemporary system being built in New York City. However, planning for the proposed parkway system stalled and the plan was eventually abandoned. In 1937, plans for the highway were revived as the "Delaware Skyway", a planned elevated highway along the waterfront similar in design to the West Side Highway in New York, though these plans were also scrapped due to concerns that the supports would hinder access to port operations on the waterfront.²⁷

I-95 north of the Interstate 476 interchange

In 1945, the city approved the current routing as the Delaware Expressway, envisioned to link all the industrial areas along the river with the Industrial Highway and the Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge to New Jersey. The planned highway was incorporated into the Pennsylvania Turnpike system, and was planned to be built as a toll road. However, with the advent of the Interstate Highway System in 1956, the project was turned over to the Pennsylvania Department of Highways and incorporated into Interstate 95. Construction on the road commenced in 1959.²⁷

Original plans called for the expressway to follow the U.S. Route 13 corridor to the Trenton-Morrisville Toll Bridge, where I-95 would continue north along today's Trenton Freeway. However, due to limited capacity of the highway through Trenton, planners instead opted to build a new alignment bypassing Trenton to the west, incorporating the existing Scudder Falls Bridge.²⁷

Controversy erupted in the early 1960s over the planned eight-lane elevated segment of the highway along the Center City waterfront; residents of the upscale Society Hill neighborhood objected to the highway on the grounds that it would cut off the neighborhood from the river. State highway officials reached a compromise by opting for an alternative depressed design with an overhead concrete deck connecting Center City to a planned redeveloped waterfront today known as Penn's Landing. By 1979, the entire length of the expressway was open to traffic with the exception of a four-mile segment near Philadelphia International Airport.²⁷

Completion of the final section of the highway faced considerable difficulty, as the road was to be built on a layer of clay separating the city's water supply from the output of its sewage treatment plant. Matters were complicated by a two-year suspension of federal highway funding while the state failed to implement a federally mandated emissions testing program. This final segment was opened to traffic in 1985, marking the completion of the 35-year project.²⁷

On March 18, 2008, two miles of I-95 within Philadelphia were forced to be closed when PennDOT discovered large cracks in a support column underneath the highway. In order to prevent possible collapse, I-95 was closed between Exit 23 (Girard Avenue) and Exit 25 (Allegheny Avenue). PennDOT worked quickly to stiffen the support beams to allow the road to be raised off the column, using 16 jacks, early that Thursday morning. PennDOT reopened the road shortly thereafter, and plans to replace the cracked column.⁸

Future

Further information: Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project

A project is currently underway to build an interchange between I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike (Interstate 276) where the two highways cross but do not currently interchange with each other. Following the completion of the project, the Pennsylvania Turnpike east of the interchange will be redesignated I-95 to connect with the New Jersey Turnpike portion of the route, while the current I-95 north of the interchange will become part of an extended Interstate 195. In addition, PennDOT will start a total rebuild project of all of the I-95 bridges in Philadelphia between Cottman Avenue (PA Rt. 73) and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, in which I-95 will have a total of eight lanes between Central Philadelphia and the Woodhaven Road (PA Rt. 63) exit. The project was planned well in advance of the I-35W Bridge Collapse and will replace bridge spans that were built in the 1960s.

Exit list

County	Location	Mile9	#	Destinations	Notes
Delaware	Boothwyn	1.16	1	Chichester Avenue
	Linwood	1.72	2	PA 452 (Market Street)
	Chester	2.85	3A	US 322 west – West Chester	South end of US 322 overlap; southbound exit and northbound entrance
			3	Highland Avenue
		3.62	4	US 322 east (Commodore Barry Bridge) - New Jersey	North end of US 322 overlap
		4.50	5	Kerlin Street	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		5.62	6	PA 320 (Providence Avenue) / PA 352 (Edgmont Avenue, Avenue of the States)
		6.64	7	I-476 north – Plymouth Meeting
	Ridley Park	7.78	8	Ridley Park
	Tinicum Township		9	PA 420 – Essington, Prospect Park	Signed as exits 9A (south) and 9B (north)
		10.25	12B	PA 291 / Bartram Avenue – Cargo City	Signed as exit 10 northbound
Philadelphia	Philadelphia
		12.17	12A	Philadelphia International Airport	Signed as exit 12 northbound
		13.14	13	PA 291 north to I-76 west – Valley Forge	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
		13.71	14	Bartram Avenue, Essington Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		14.56	15	Enterprise Avenue, Island Avenue	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
		16.74	17	PA 611 (Broad Street) / Pattison Avenue
		18.51	19	I-76 east (Walt Whitman Bridge) / Packer Avenue
		20.43	20	Columbus Boulevard, Washington Avenue
		21.89	22	I-676 / US 30 / Callowhill Street – Central Philadelphia, Independence Hall
		23.38	23	Girard Avenue, Lehigh Avenue
		24.87	25	Allegheny Avenue, Castor Avenue
		26.15	26	NJ 90 (Betsy Ross Bridge) / Aramingo Avenue
		27.18	27	Bridge Street, Harbison Avenue
		29.80	30	PA 73 (Cottman Avenue) / Rhawn Street
		32.06	32	Academy Road, Linden Avenue
Bucks	Andalusia	34.66	35	PA 63 west (Woodhaven Road)
				Cornwells Heights Park & Ride	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	Eddington	36.35	37	PA 132 west (Street Road) to US 13 (Bristol Pike)
	Bristol Township	39.48	40	PA 413 (Burlington Bristol Bridge) to I-276 – Bristol
	Penndel	43.31	44	US 1 Bus. / PA 413 – Penndel, Levittown
	Middletown Township		46	US 1 – Morrisville, Langhorne	Signed as exits 46A (north) and 46B (south)
	Lower Makefield Township	48.49	49	PA 332 – Newtown, Yardley
		50.75	51	New Hope, Yardley	Signed as exits 51A (Yardley) and 51B (New Hope) southbound
	Scudder Falls Bridge over the Delaware River

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 95 in Pennsylvania

• The Roads of Metro Philadelphia: Delaware Expressway (I-95)
• Pennsylvania Highways: Interstate 95

Interstate 95
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