Eagles game-day detour could be costly

Eagles fans and other game-day motorists on I-95, beware: You might accidentally end up in New Jersey.

A traffic pattern created by Philadelphia police after Eagles home games now requires all vehicles that exit northbound I-95 at Exit 19 (Packer Avenue/Walt Whitman Bridge) to get on the ramp to the Walt Whitman to New Jersey.

The other option usually open to drivers, to get onto Packer Avenue, is closed off by police for about two hours after home games, the department says.

The new pattern was first used after the Sept. 21 game against the Washington Redskins, to the chagrin of drivers who got an unplanned visit to Camden and a $5 toll to return.

Philadelphia police say motorists were warned by five variable message signs (VMS) of the new restriction, instructing them to use the Washington Avenue exit for local traffic.

"If motorists don't read the VMS signs regarding the restrictions and access the Walt Whitman Bridge, they will have to cross the bridge and return across the bridge and pay the toll," Philadelphia police said in a statement.

However, officials of the Delaware River Port Authority, which owns and operates the bridge, say they plan to have DRPA police in place for Sunday's home game to direct wayward passenger vehicles - but not trucks - onto a DRPA access road to Front Street, thus avoiding an unwanted trip to the Garden State.