The team temporarily stabilizing the Delaware River Bridge and planning its permanent repair also are trying to find a precedent for the bridge’s uncommon fracture. Connecting the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes, the 61-year-old symmetrical truss bridge was shut down indefinitely on Jan. 20, when a complete fracture in a steel truss was discovered below the bridge deck.
Gary Graham, assistant chief engineer for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, said bridges typically stretch or bow before snapping. “It requires all the more investigation in trying to determine exactly what happened because there isn’t a whole lot of past examples,” he says.