JMT Provides Construction Inspection for SEPTA’s New and Improved Bridge Over Keswick Avenue in Glenside, PA

Over Memorial Day weekend 2025, the Keswick Avenue Bridge got a much-needed makeover. Crews worked around the clock to replace the aging Keswick Avenue Bridge, built in the early 1900s, with a newly fabricated steel bridge. This structure carries SEPTA’s electrified regional rail main line between Glenside and Jenkintown Stations. Business commuters and Arcadia University students rely on these trains. 

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Instead of months of disruption, the team used Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC), a game-changing approach that allowed the new steel bridge to be fabricated off-site in the Sloane overflow lot near Mt. Carmel and then moved into place during a tightly coordinated 78-hour service shutdown. The existing bridge was removed in one unit, and the new bridge was moved into place using a specialized piece of equipment that was able to jack and transport the bridge. This approach significantly reduced the duration of travel disruptions for the community and commuters and took close communication and coordination with local municipalities and police. Since the central area surrounding the project was residential, with a few local businesses affected by the detour, keeping the closure time short was ideal. During the track shutdown, SEPTA provided bus service for passengers between the Glenside and Jenkintown Stations. 

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The bridge consists of a single-span steel through-girder with a steel trough floor superstructure and ballast deck, supported by reinforced concrete abutments and integral wingwalls. To navigate the safety challenges of replacing a bridge in an area with overhead power lines, signal lines, and catenary lines, constructing it off-site was the best option, which avoided safety issues with cranes near those utilities.

JMT provided construction management and inspection services throughout the $11 million project, and continuously through the track outage, ensuring the safe and timely removal of the original bridge and the precise placement of the new structure, while SEPTA crews removed and reinstalled the track over the bridge at each end of the outage. During the outage, JMT’s project manager stayed in constant communication with SEPTA management to update them on progress. In addition to the bridge replacement, crews completed critical repairs to the concrete abutment walls and wing walls. 

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