Robert A. Box, Delaware River Port Authority engineer who became PATCO manager

Robert Allan Box, of West Chester, chief engineer of the Delaware River Port Authority who later became general manager of the PATCO High-Speed Line, died Friday, March 1, at his home after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 69.

Mr. Box was born and raised in Hawley, a town in the Poconos. He graduated from Wallenpaupack Area High School in 1967. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Drexel University in 1972 and a master’s degree from Villanova University, both in civil engineering.

He started his career by working for five years as a PennDot engineer and was the Chester County bridge engineer from 1977 to 1985.

He then joined the engineering department of the Delaware River Port Authority, where he rose to chief engineer. In 2002, he was named general manager of PATCO, the Port Authority’s high-speed line. He was known for his leadership skills, integrity, and emphasis on safety, his family said.

His most visible legacy is the system of movable “zipper” barriers he had installed in 2000 to divide opposing lanes of traffic on the Ben Franklin Bridge. Prior to that, there was a concrete divider down the middle of the bridge with the same number of fixed lanes on each side, said retired DRPA and PATCO general counsel Dick Brown.

“If you hit it, you tended to bounce off into other cars,” Brown said. The zipper barriers, though, could be shifted to allow more lanes from South Jersey into Philadelphia to handle the morning commute, and again in the late afternoon, to make more lanes available from the city into Jersey.

“This had been talked about and talked about, but nobody likes change,” Brown said. “He knew it was the right thing to do. He stuck to it, he had the facts and the data. They got it done.”

As a result, the number of accidents on the bridge dropped, Brown said.

Brown, who worked with Mr. Box for 20 years, said he was “always kind, nice, and polite, but he was willing to stick to his guns when he felt he was doing the right thing.”

Mr. Box was intent on keeping the bridges in good repair and set a pattern in the Port Authority’s engineering department for doing so. “Every commuter should be thankful that Bob Box was the chief engineer,” Brown said.

Elizabeth Murphy, another former Port Authority colleague, said: “Bob was more than a highly skilled engineer. He worked with ultimate integrity and focused on his colleagues’ well-being and development. There are so many of us that have been honored to call him a dear friend.”

Mr. Box retired from PATCO and the Port Authority in 2011. In retirement, he spent time outdoors, hunting in upstate Pennsylvania and working on his cabin. He used his engineering skills to build a new cabin in the woods in 2015. For the first time, he could shower indoors during hunting trips.

He was also a member of the Yacht Club of Sea Isle City, N.J., and helped modernize the club’s building in 2013.

His other projects included renovating his daughter’s historic Philadelphia rowhome, and doing landscaping and furniture-making. “They will stand as lasting tributes for years to come,” his family said.

Mr. Box married Margaret “Mimi” Baumgardner in 1973. He was devoted to his family and known for his sense of humor and zest for adventure.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Lauren Box Hegarty; a son, Dan; three grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

A visitation will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, March 7, at the Donohue Funeral Home, 1627 West Chester Pike, West Chester. A second visitation starting at 10 a.m. Friday, March 8, will be followed by an 11:30 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at SS. Simon and Jude Church, 8 Cavanaugh Ct., West Chester. Interment is in SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery, Springfield, Delaware County.

Donations may be made to Project HOME, 1515 Fairmount Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. 19130.