June traffic on Delaware Memorial Bridge sets record despite drop in commuter traffic

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Delaware River and Bay Authority officials reported record traffic volume for June at the Delaware Memorial Bridge.  The bridge handled more than 1.6 million vehicles, beating out the previous record in June 2019. 

The strength in commercial vehicles and Class 1 passenger vehicles offset continued weakness in daily commuter numbers for the month.

Back-ups on approaches to the bridge were frequent during June,  a common occurrence in the summer travel season, especially on weekends.

“We’re somewhat surprised at how quickly traffic volumes have rebounded,” said Thomas J. Cook, executive director of the DRBA. “Commercial traffic has been rather robust for the first six months of the year, but Class 1 passenger vehicles hadn’t rallied until this past month. Moreover, daily commuter traffic is still off 30-35% compared to 2019 numbers.  These trends appear to reinforce what some experts have suggested as we recover from the pandemic – telecommuting for work continues to be prevalent, and there’s a pent-up demand for vacations and travel.”

Cook said the bi-state agency had estimated a 10% decline in 2021 traffic compared to 2019 figures – a record year on the Delaware Memorial Bridge. However, during the first six months of 2021, Delaware Memorial Bridge traffic has been slowly recovering.

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In 2020, Delaware Memorial Bridge traffic numbers dropped sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic.  

In March 2020, traffic volume dropped more than 350,000 vehicles; most of the decline occurred during the last two weeks of the month. 

Bridge transactions fell to a mere 559,435 in April 2020, a decline of nearly 66%.  May 2020 numbers declined by 50%, totaling 875,000 transactions for the month.  Traffic numbers stabilized during the summer months but remained down by more than 20% compared to the previous year. 

See chart below

Month 2021 2019 Change
January 1,128,760 1,242,187 -113,427
February 947,280 1,159,315 -212,035
March 1,291,613 1,338,425 -46,812
April 1,407,160 1,558,271 -151,111
May 1,531,717 1,598,712 -66,554
June 1,627,547 1,627,547 7,910

For 2020, the Bridge handled 14,124,440 vehicles through the southbound toll plaza, a drop of nearly 23% compared to the 2019 figure of 18,288,314. As a result, revenue at the Delaware Memorial Bridge was off more than $16 million.

Multiple construction projects continue at the Delaware Memorial Bridge. As a result, motorists will experience lane closures associated with the steelwork repair, suspender rope replacement program as well as bridge painting projects during the next several months. 

The heavily used half-century-old twin spans require continuous maintenance and improvement projects.

DRBA engineers have capital projects to minimize traffic delays to the extent possible, but some are expected, particularly during peak travel times. Motorists can follow the bridge on  Twitter for construction news and traffic conditions, a release stated. 

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