By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Those who regularly drive in the area of the South Creek Road Bridge in Chadds Ford celebrated its formal reopening on Friday, Nov. 14, after a 20-month rebuilding project.

Those who live nearby also marked the occasion with an informal fireworks party onsite two nights earlier.

The 100-year-old bridge over the Brandywine Creek was deemed unsafe to bear traffic and was closed for replacement as of April of 2024. Drivers who then wanted to reach destinations on the other side of the creek had to take detours that sometimes took them an extra 20 minutes and traveled over narrow and curving roads.

State Rep. Craig Williams, R-160, of Chadds Ford, was on hand to congratulate the construction team and neighbors at the reopening, as was State Sen. John Kane, D-9, of Chester.

Williams first addressed the construction workers privately, telling them what a good job they had done.

“They were proud of the project,” he said

He then took the microphone and spoke to the audience members, many of them standing nearby with their dogs.

Reminding them that he, too, is a resident of Chadds Ford, he said, “The best thing Senator Kane and I do is like this.”

Reminding them that the job had come in on time, he said, “When you put your mind to it, you can build a budget and build a bridge.”

Kane said, “This is going to be here longer than we are.”

Following the words of praise and enthusiasm, the audience members walked the length of the bridge and back, although one dog, Sammy Draper, earlier in the ceremony stepped some distance onto the span.

During the rebuilding, the bridge was completely replaced, and the process began with a demolition.

It is now six spans long and is six lanes wide. This bridge is called “six spans” because it has six sections between supports with five of them in the stream and the end land area providing support on each end.

The bridge marks the division between Pennsbury and Chadds Ford townships. The project was federally funded and the cost was $15.1 million.

The East Penn railroad tracks skirt the south side of the creek under the bridge, but the project had little effect on its running except on the first day when the demolition took place, Trainmaster Randy Miller said.

On the south side of the creek lies the New Roots produce stand. Business was down 30 percent at the stand in the two summers of the detours, according to Manager Donni Pinzone.

Haines & Kibblehouse, Inc. of Philadelphia, was the general contractor on the bridge project.