Add $500 to that $67M price tag

When Mayor Michael Nutter ribbon-cut the South Street Bridge on Saturday after a $67 million renovation, he spoke of urban renewal: “This crumbling structure that became a growing concern for more than a decade has been transformed into a model of a strong government-community partnership,” he said.

Three graffiti-minded vandals apparently don’t think Philadelphia is the place for shiny, new things, though.

Just before 3 a.m. yesterday, a state police trooper noticed two men and a teenager with a can of spray paint near a fresh tag in the bridge’s Schuylkill Expressway tunnel, according to ABC6 News. They took off running on the highway and then the Amtrak tracks, with the trooper in pursuit.

One was caught on the tracks; the other two got as far as the top floor of the parking garage at 30th Street station.

Estimating the damages at $500, police reported the suspects — Charles Hyson, 30; Kyle Segeske, 25; and an unnamed 16-year-old — said they weren’t done with just one tag. They remained in state police custody yesterday afternoon. Calls to state police in Harrisburg and the Philadelphia barracks were not returned.

“Individuals who deface public property are vandals not artists,” said Nutter spokesman Mark McDonald. “After a decade of gridlock trying to get a new bridge, it’s particularly pathetic to see misguided people target a structure that the Nutter administration delivered on budget and a month early.”