This past spring, PennDOT reopened the fire-damaged bridge and adjacent northbound off-ramp at the Interstate 95 Cottman Avenue Interchange and opened the new Cottman Avenue on-ramp to southbound I-95 (Section CP3) in Northeast Philadelphia in late June, substantially completing the $54.2 million project that began in spring 2022.
Section CP3 is the third and final contract to reconstruct the Cottman Avenue Interchange and widen I-95 to four continuous lanes between Rhawn and Levick streets in Northeast Philadelphia. In addition to building the new on-ramp, PennDOT's contractor improved several surface streets serving the Cottman Avenue Interchange and completed the relocation of a sanitary sewer adjacent to the southbound interstate.
Reconstruction of Wissinoming Street between Cottman and Princeton avenues, also part of the CP3 contract, is underway and will be completed later this summer.
The first phase of PennDOT's I-95/Cottman Avenue Interchange Improvement Project (Section CP1) began in 2009 and was completed in mid-2012. Under that $34 million contract, PennDOT built two new ramps – a new southbound on-ramp at Longshore Avenue and a new northbound on-ramp from Milnor Street – and rebuilt the existing on-ramp to I-95 north from Princeton Avenue.
Additional improvements to Cottman Avenue, Princeton Avenue, and State Road in the vicinity of the interchange completed under CP1 were designed to move traffic to and from I-95 in a manner that enhances pedestrian and vehicular traffic movement in the adjacent Tacony neighborhood.
Section CP2 construction began in late 2012 and ended in late 2017. Under this contract, PennDOT rebuilt and widened northbound and southbound I-95 and its bridges to four continuous lanes between Rhawn Street and Levick Street under a $212 million contract that at the time was the largest construction contract in the agency's history.
CP2 also reconstructed and improved the existing southbound off-ramp to Bleigh Avenue, extended Princeton Avenue from State Road to Milnor Street, and rebuilt a section of New State Road. Installation of a new, 84-inch water main adjacent to southbound I-95 between Cottman and Princeton avenues was also completed under this contract.
For more information on PennDOT's I-95 Reconstruction and Improvement Program, visit www.95revive.com.