About this Master Plan Initiative

Collectively, the five river crossings that are the focus on this initiative carry over 250,000 vehicles and over 700 pedestrians daily. Two PA Bicycle Route J crossings and the Appalachian Trail also cross the river on these structures. Two of the bridges are on the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA’s) Primary Highway Freight System, servicing more than 36,000 trucks per day. These bridges are important to commuters and residents of the Harrisburg area, as well as interstate commerce across the entire U.S. Northeast.

The crossings within the Capital Beltway are all intertwined—while each bridge operates separately, they are all interrelated because of their proximity to one another. Planning future construction activities on and around the bridges is a challenge; the objective of this initiative is to develop a master plan report which will detail strategies for construction, maintenance and preservation, traffic capacity, multimodal and funding needs of each structure over the next 25+ years.

The study launched in 2019, and is expected to be completed by early 2020. As the project progresses information will be posted on this website, so check back frequently for updates.

 One of the critical elements of this study will be to determine the order of bridge replacement or rehabilitation needs over a 25-year period so that impacts to regional traffic patterns can be evaluated and funding requirements can be planned. The KCI team will use a phased systematic approach as follows: