The intersection of N. 3rd and Verbeke streets in Harrisburg
Big changes are coming to the heart of Midtown Harrisburg, but first residents, visitors and motorists will have to endure a month of considerable inconvenience.
Starting next week, the 3rd Street project will hit N. 3rd and Verbeke streets, necessitating road and sidewalk closures and detours.
“This is going to be a major disruption in many respects,” said Mayor Eric Papenfuse today.
For more than a year, crews have been working on a two-mile stretch of 3rd Street, replacing sewers, improving intersections, replacing streetlights and redoing curbs. Construction on the $5.5 million project should wrap up late this year with a road resurfacing of the entire stretch.
The work near the Broad Street Market will begin on Monday, closing Verbeke Street at the intersection of N. 3rd Street. One side of the street, which is split by the market, will reopen on Thursday for the weekend market hours.
The following week, starting May 6, the entire intersection of N. 3rd and Verbeke will close from Monday through Thursday. Work at the intersection will continue through about May 23, though it could be extended in the event of substantial rain or other unexpected delays.
“The reason that Verbeke gets closed is that the dig is deep,” said city Engineer Wayne Martin. “We can’t have traffic with that deep of excavation.”
Besides road and sidewalk delays, the construction will affect access to the three main buildings at the intersection: the Broad Street Market, Midtown Scholar Bookstore and the Historic Harrisburg Resource Center, Papenfuse said.
The new intersections, which will include significant bump-outs into the current street area, will require construction work to the edge of the existing buildings so that they conform with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements, he said.
The projected N. 3rd/Verbeke construction timeline
Martin said that the general contractor, Elizabethtown-based Doug Lamb Construction, could have had a less ambitious schedule, but that would have drawn out the period of construction.
“We could have prolonged the agony, or we could rip the Band-Aid off all at one time,” he said.
Papenfuse said that he believes the end result will be worth the temporary inconveniences to motorists and pedestrians.
The intersection, he said, will have a totally different look—with more green space—and be far more pedestrian-friendly.
“It’s going to be great once it’s done,” he said.
