Repair Blitz to Close Lincoln Drive on Saturday

Lincoln Drive. Photo | Google Street View

If you use Lincoln Drive between Germantown and East Falls, you’ll have to find another way to get where you’re going this Saturday.

That’s because the Philadelphia Streets Department will shut the road down completely starting at 7 a.m. for a day-long maintenance and repair blitz.

The long list of projects Streets Department crews will tackle on Saturday includes guardrail repairs, inlet cleaning, pothole repairs, tree pruning and cutting, and other maintenance work on the roadway and adjacent areas.

Because the list is so extensive and because taking care of it in one day will require lots of manpower and equipment, the road will be closed to pedestrians and bicycles as well as cars between the Kelly Drive/Ridge Avenue interchange and Wissahickon Avenue.

The city will post a detour via Walnut Lane for southbound traffic at Wissahickon Avenue. There will be no marked detour for northbound traffic at the Kelly Drive/Ridge Avenue interchange because of its many access points; the city recommends that travelers heading north from East Falls to Germantown use either School House Lane east of Lincoln Drive or Walnut Lane west of it. Police will be stationed at both ends to help manage the traffic flow.

Streets Commissioner David Perri said in a news release announcing the closure that the work is being scheduled all at one time in order to minimize inconvenience for motorists, residents and businesses in the area. All work on the closed stretch of Lincoln Drive should be completed by 5 p.m. on Saturday.

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