Phillipsburg police will be manually operating the traffic signals on the New Jersey side of the free bridge to Easton for the foreseeable future.
Town officials and Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission are hoping the officer’s temporary post will alleviate westbound traffic congestion along Phillipsburg’s North Main and South Main streets. It’s unclear how long an officer will have to remain assigned to the new role.
Commission spokesman Joe Donnelly said the timing depends on the commission’s assessment of the traffic flow while the bridge undergoes a major rehabilitation.
“We’re currently in the process of making the assessment now,” he said last week. “If we find that this is the best course of action, we will continue with it.”
Donnelly said he couldn’t speak to how long it would take for the commission to finish its assessment or how the assessment is being determined.
The officer first appeared at the site on May 3, and is scheduled to regularly manually operate the traffic signal during peak hours from 1 to 7 p.m. on weekdays, officials said.
A reduction in March from two lanes to one westbound toward Easton, due to the rehabilitation project, has led to significant traffic backups in Phillipsburg. During peak hours, traffic can back up nearly a mile into Phillipsburg’s downtown.
Phillipsburg officials proposed two plans to the commission to address safety concerns about emergency vehicles’ ability to access South Main Street during the backups. One idea was to convert the free bridge into two westbound lanes into Easton and divert eastbound traffic onto Route 22, which would require approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the other was to temporarily have a police officer manually operate the traffic signal.
Donnelly said concerns that two westbound lanes on the free bridge could adversely create traffic jams in Easton along Larry Holmes Drive near Route 22, which is owned by the state, made the second option more feasible. Businesses in Phillipsburg’s Union Square next to the bridge also complained about the one-way plan’s impact on their customers.
The free bridge rehab is the first in over two decades. The project is expected to last into spring 2023, but around-the-clock lane closures are expected to end this November, Donnelly said in March.
The 550-foot-long, 36-foot-wide span was built in 1895-96 and carried on average 16,500 vehicles per day in 2021. It’s the commission’s most heavily used free bridge, and is supported by tolls on other Delaware River crossings maintained by the commission.
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Glenn Epps can be reached at gepps@lehighvalleylive.com.
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