Community members ask questions and speak with PennDOT representatives during open house for Market Street Bridge rehab project.
At an open house on Tuesday night, local bicyclists expressed support for the most recent proposal to rehabilitate the Market Street Bridge, which includes a new multimodal feature.
Recently, PennDOT revised its proposal for the bridge rehab, adding a separate 14-foot wide bicycle and pedestrian lane on top of a utility bridge that would be constructed along the south side of the bridge.
According to Dave Thompson, press officer for PennDOT’s District 8, the newest iteration of the proposal was influenced by public comments.
“We got feedback from the public on shared use for bicyclists and pedestrians and we saw that as a good idea,” he said.
PennDOT first announced the bridge rehab proposal in 2021, but modified the proposal in May 2022 to add a separate utility bridge, which would carry utilities now housed beneath the bridge’s sidewalks. According to PennDOT, the separate utility bridge would reduce total construction time from around 10 years to five or six years.
Several members of the local bicycling community attended Tuesday’s meeting at Harrisburg’s MLK City Government Center to view the updated proposal.
“I’m very excited for the utility bridge,” said Harrisburg Bike Club member and Linglestown resident Susan Tussey. “It’s going to be great for biking. You’ll have a lot more people wanting to ride.”
Another biker and Harrisburg resident, Will Rowe, appreciated that the separate bridge would allow access for pedestrians and bicyclists throughout the construction process.
“It seems like they’ve been responsive to feedback in terms of bike and pedestrian safety,” Rowe said. “It’s going in a good direction.”
However, several people who attended also expressed interest in seeing additions to the proposal, such as clearly marked bike and pedestrian lanes on the utility bridge and improved crosswalks at intersections on each side of the bridge.
According to PennDOT Project Manager Heidi Mertz, the utility bridge would be constructed first and would likely take about a year to complete.
The Market Street Bridge spans the Susquehanna River and includes two separate bridges, the stone arch eastern portion connecting Harrisburg to City Island and the concrete “box beam” western span linking Wormleysburg/Lemoyne to City Island.
Outside of the utility bridge construction, the project proposes four, 10-foot travel lanes, a configuration similar to the current conditions. Additionally, PennDOT would expand the existing upstream sidewalk width by 1 foot on the eastern bridge, and shoulders would be added. On the western bridge, shoulders and a 7-foot-wide upstream sidewalk would be added. On both portions of the bridge, downstream sidewalks would be eliminated.
PennDOT anticipates starting construction on the project in 2025, at the earliest, according to Mertz.
The proposal is available online for public comment through Aug. 7.
For more information on the Market Street rehabilitation plan, visit the project website.
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