Nine miles and about twenty minutes over the Walt Whitman Bridge, with no toll in the Philadelphia direction, because the Walt Whitman only collects going back into New Jersey. Chip fills are $60 to $130 and take half an hour. A fitted windshield is $250 to $450, roughly an hour of work plus safe drive-away time. Door and back glass runs $200 to $500. Call 215-608-1108 before you set off.
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Bellmawr cars live on concrete. The borough wraps around the knot where Route 42, I-295 and I-76 come together, and that interchange has been a working construction site for years: shifted lanes, temporary surfaces, concrete barrier a foot from the mirror and plant parked where the shoulder used to be. A car that goes through it twice a day is spending its life in exactly the conditions that chip windshields, with narrow lanes, trucks close alongside, and loose stone that has nowhere to go but up.
The upside is that Philadelphia is close. It is about twenty minutes from most of Bellmawr to Snyder Avenue if you catch the bridge right, and since the toll is only charged in the New Jersey direction, the trip over costs nothing. Call first with the year, make, model and the VIN if you have it, and you will know whether the glass is in stock and exactly what it costs before you commit to the drive. Filling a chip while it is still repairable, smaller than a quarter and out of your line of sight, is $60 to $130 and half an hour, which beats $250 to $450 for a new windshield by a distance.
Route 42 and I-295 meet I-76 at the top of the borough, and the ramps and the long-running rebuild there set the tone for driving anywhere in Bellmawr. The Black Horse Pike runs through on the surface with lights, trucks and turning traffic all day. Browning Road and Creek Road take the local movement, and the low ground toward the creek and the river holds water in a heavy storm. The residential streets follow the postwar pattern, driveways, garages and off-street parking, so cars here mostly sleep off the road. That is why break-ins are a small part of what we see from Bellmawr and highway damage is nearly all of it.
“They were able to install a new drivers side rear window for me the same day I called, when all the other shops were saying it could take a few days. They did a wonderful job and even cleaned up all the glass that was in my car (even folded a blanket I had in there that got glass on it) from my window being busted in.”
One: the interchange. Construction zones concentrate everything bad for glass into a short stretch, with reduced lane width, trucks a car length away, temporary pavement and loose aggregate that never quite gets swept. Two: the bridge. The Walt Whitman's expansion joints deliver a hard, repeatable jolt at a known point, and that is often the moment a chip that had been stable for a month decides to run. Three: the Black Horse Pike, where stop-start traffic keeps you behind somebody else's rear tyres at low speed for mile after mile. Four: winter brine on the state routes, which does not crack glass but pits it slowly, and pitted glass is why oncoming headlights flare on a wet night.
Route 42 north to I-76 west and over the Walt Whitman Bridge. Take the Broad Street exit on the Philadelphia side, head north on Broad past the stadiums and Oregon Avenue, and turn west onto Snyder Avenue; we are about a mile along, between 26th and 27th. Twenty minutes when the bridge is moving. You will pay the toll going home eastbound and nothing coming in. If the windshield is bad enough that you would rather not take it over a bridge at all, say so when you call 215-608-1108 and we will talk it through rather than assume.
Russell's Auto Repair works across South Philadelphia and the surrounding towns — pick your neighborhood:
No. The Walt Whitman collects only in the New Jersey-bound direction, so coming into Philadelphia is free and you pay on the way home. Worth knowing if you are weighing up the trip: the cost of getting here is fuel and about twenty minutes. Call 215-608-1108 first with the year, make and model so the glass is confirmed as being in stock before you use either.
Comprehensive glass cover follows the vehicle and the policy rather than the state line, and we bill insurers directly, so in most cases it is not a problem. The number that decides it is your deductible. Chip repairs are frequently paid in full, which is the whole argument for coming over while it is still a chip. On a $250 to $450 windshield against a $500 deductible you are paying either way, and we will say so.
Mid-morning and early afternoon are the kind hours. We open at 8:30 Monday to Friday and 8:30 on Saturday, closing at 5:30 during the week and 4:00 on Saturday, so aiming to arrive around ten leaves room for the job and the drive home before either end gets busy. Do not aim for a Saturday afternoon: if the interchange or the bridge is stopped, you will arrive to a closed shop.
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| Monday – Friday | 08:30 – 17:30 |
| Saturday | 08:30 – 16:00 |