W. Park Blvd Bridge Finally Reopened in Haddon Township

It's more than a year past due, and took longer to complete than it took to build the Empire State Building, but a 47-foot span of bridge connecting a busy alternate route between Haddonfield, Haddon Township and Collingswood was finally reopened Friday.

The W. Park Boulevard bridge over a Newton Creek tributary was supposed to be completed in Dec. 2012, three months after it started. But a foul up with the concrete poured to replace the nearly 100 year-old bridge started a year of calamities that delayed completion. Other delays included avoiding the shutdown of a key natural gas pipeline under the structure and a series of reengineering plans.

The delays have riled neighbors along the narrow, two-lane street who have endured detoured traffic and barricades for more than a year.

"I'm disgusted at this point" Janice Eichmann, 74, a retired secretary who lives at the foot of the bridge at the corner of W. Park Boulevard and W. Walnut Ave, said last month.

W. Park Boulevard connects West End Avenue in Haddonfield with Park Avenue in Collingswood. W. Park Boulevard is a Camden County road and the work was contracted by the county.

Additional cost for the $273,788 project are expected to be paid by the contractors, a county spokesman said. The general contractor is Schiavone and the concrete contractor is R.E. Pierson of Pilesgrove.

The reconstruction project includes new concrete curbing and handicap ramps, new inlet and manhole castings, roadway striping and markings and the full resurfacing of the roadway approaching the bridge. 

"Park Boulevard will be repaved from Crystal Lake Avenue to Cuthbert Boulevard in the spring when weather conditions will be more favorable," said Freeholder Ian Leonard, liaison to the Camden County DPW.