BEN FRANKLIN BRIDGE WALKWAY
FAQ
What are the walkway hours?
Currently the walkway is open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Why isn’t the walkway open 24 hours a day?
For security reasons, we have not kept the walkway open throughout the night and do not intend to do so at this time.
Why is only one walkway open at a time?
One walkway is adequate for the amount of pedestrian and bicycle traffic
Why is the walkway closed during inclement weather?
Inclement weather such as high winds, heavy rainstorms, icing and snowfall may cause hazardous conditions on the walkway for the public and for our employees.
Why does the walkway stay closed long after a snowfall?
We close the walkway when there is ice or snow accumulation for pedestrian safety reasons. When cold ambient weather conditions occur days after a precipitation event, there may not be adequate snow or ice melted from the walks to make the walkways safely passable. Bridge pavement temperatures are often quite lower than ground pavement during the winter months thereby extending the melt time. As a result, the walk could remain closed days after a snow storm.
We do not plow the walkways because there is no acceptable place to put the snow. We have examined many possibilities and find none that are acceptable. We cannot dump the accumulated snow on the roadway because of traffic and our need to keep the roadway clear. We cannot dump snow on the electrified PATCO trackway as it will adversely effect PATCO train operations. In the distant past, an attempt was made to plow off of the pedestrian walkway over onto the track, but the effort was immediately stopped due to PATCO problems with the snow.
Furthermore, to just push snow across the entire 1.5-mile walk would adversely affect and possibly damage the cast iron walk railings. We cannot blow snow over track into the Delaware River or onto land as it is impractical due to the horizontal distance and the inability to control the projection in the midst of wind and spray. When the walkway is snow and/or ice covered, we do not wish to jeopardize safety on the narrow, confined elevated walk by attempting to use our smaller vehicles to attempt to plow or salt the walk. We have attempted in the past to manually “knock down” the snow accumulation on the walk to expedite the melt process but encountered unsafe conditions for our workers in so doing.
Officers with our Public Safety department check the walkways daily after a snow or ice storm to determine if it is safe to reopen.
What are the alternatives when the walkway is closed?
There are other services that provide passage over the Delaware River and accommodate riders with bikes. They include the PATCO High Speed Line, and NJ Transit bus service.
The PATCO High Speed Line has nine stations in New Jersey and four stations in Center City Philadelphia including 8th & Market, 9th/10th & Locust, 12th/13th & Locust, and 15th/16th & Locust. In downtown Camden, PATCO stops at the Broadway Station (Walter Rand Transportation Center) and City Hall Station. Fares vary depending on length of travel. Bicycles are allowed onboard PATCO trains at all times. For more information on PATCO please call (856) 772-6900 or (215) 922-4600 or visit our website at http://www.ridepatco.org.
NJ Transit offers 18 buses from Camden’s Walter Rand Transportation Center to Philadelphia, all of which accommodate bicycles. Take any NJ Transit bus marked "Philadelphia." The fare is $1.30. NJ Transit buses take passengers over the Benjamin Franklin Bridge into Center City Philadelphia with stops along Market Street between 7th & 13th streets as well as stops at Broad & Cherry streets and along Vine Street back toward the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. For more information on NJ Transit bus service please call (800) 626-7433 or visit the website at http://www.njtransit.com.
How do I find out the conditions on the walkway?
DRPA has worked with the community to make the walkway as accessible as possible. We are in constant communications with the Bicycle Coalition of the Delaware Valley and notify the coalition via email immediately of any changes to the walkway hours. We also post updated walkway information on our website at www.drpa.org. Walkway users may also sign up for our free Walkway email subscription service to be notified of changes to the walkway schedule. To sign up, please go to http://www.drpa.org/special/email_add.asp
Why can’t the walkway be extended for easier bike access?
Several years ago, DRPA engineers conducted a feasibility study for extending the walkway on the south side of the bridge for bike access by eliminating steps. The findings indicated cost, grade and other logistical issues that make it difficult to consider building an extended walkway along bridge abutments in Camden. While the Philadelphia approach to the walkway is at grade level, the structural conditions are quite different in Camden due to the location of PATCO’s yard and underground tunnel, the bridge maintenance yard, abutment sidewalks, and Camden’s 5th Street pedestrian tunnel. Extending the walkway poses engineering challenges, community challenges and architectural challenges. We would have to cut off access to the 5th Street pedestrian tunnel, create a structure to span the underground PATCO tunnel, extend the width of abutment sidewalks, eliminate metered parking along Pearl Street – cutting off revenue for the Camden Parking Authority and cutting much-needed parking for Rutgers-Camden University, and design and build a structure that would match the granite facade at the bridge abutment. While we are not actively pursuing this project at this time, we do welcome new ideas.
How can I contact DRPA with questions or ideas about the walkway?
If you should have any suggestions for how we can better serve the pedestrian and bicycle communities, please submit them via email to info@lists.drpa.org. We would be happy to forward your ideas to the proper Public Safety, Operations and Engineering staff at the Delaware River Port Authority. Thank you for your interest.
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