Camden's State Street Bridge Will Be Both New and Old When It Reopens Next Month
By Mike DeNardo
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- Getting around the city of Camden is expected to get a lot easier in the coming weeks, when work finishes on two key bridges.
After a year and a half of construction, the State Street Bridge, spanning the Cooper River, is expected to reopen by August 1st, as two bridges.
Camden County freeholder Ian Leonard says the 115-year-old bridge connecting North Camden with East Camden couldn't be torn down because of its historic landmark status, so it was rebuilt as a pedestrian walkway.
"That's actually been refurbished and redecked, where there's been new steel put on that and painted again," he tells KYW Newsradio. "So that'll last another hundred years. And then there's been a brand-new bridge put in place on the other side of that."
That second, new bridge is for motor vehicles.
Leonard says the rebuilt Baird Boulevard bridge -- damaged during Hurricane Irene in 2011 -- should reopen in late August, in time for the start of school.
