BETHLEHEM, Pennsylvania – Lehigh Valley Transportation Study planners received an update Wednesday on the extensive restoration and modernization project planned for the Hill-to-Hill Bridge.

The 100-year-old bridge spans the often busy State Route 378 and carries vehicles and pedestrians across the Lehigh River, railroads, trails and city streets to connect Bethlehem’s north and south sides. It also provides a direct connection to U.S. Route 22 and State Route 309.

Since its completion, several changes and upgrades have been made, including the addition of the expressway connecting to Route 22 and the removal of some ramps that were included in the original construction.

To restore the aging structure and alleviate the ongoing trend of traffic congestion on the bridge’s south approach, PennDOT plans a major rehabilitation project in the coming years.

According to PennDOT, approximately $69 million has been secured for the project, with the City of Bethlehem contributing approximately $8 million to improve the bridge’s municipal structures.

The total cost is estimated at $78 million, but this amount has not yet been determined as analyses of the structure are still ongoing.

The latest transportation improvement program approved by regional planners will allocate $56 million over the next four years to the project, with an additional $2 million for improved lighting.

The tender for the project is expected to open in the coming fiscal year. Construction is expected to begin in 2026 and take about four years.

Balancing historic landmarks with improvements

In a presentation by Brian Teles, a consulting project manager for PennDOT, the LVTS received an update on the status of the project, which has been planned for years.

He said revitalization presents a unique challenge because the bridge carries more than 55,000 vehicles a day while crossing historic and public areas. The bridge itself is also considered a historic landmark.

“We are trying to minimize the historical impact as much as possible,” Teles said.

“Pretty much everything here is historic. So it’s a very interesting project. It’s unique in that not just one corner of the project is historic – pretty much everything is historic. So it’s a balancing act of meeting today’s needs while also trying to preserve the history of this bridge in the area.”

In addition to extending the life of the structure, Teles cited congestion as the project’s primary concern. In particular, he noted that emergency medical services access to nearby St. Luke’s Hospital on Ostrum Street at Fountain Hill’s Level 1 Trauma Center was an incentive to improve congestion.

“This project will not solve all the traffic problems in the entire area here, but we are trying to alleviate them … as much as we can,” Teles said.

“We are doing our best to allow the emergency services to pass through this area because they are really having problems today.”

The next steps include further analysis and ongoing coordination with local stakeholders before obtaining official bids for the project.

Project to modify the south entrance of the bridge planned

To explain the project, participants in the traffic study were shown slides with information about the resources surrounding the existing structure and the proposed changes.

In order to reduce congestion when entering southern Bethlehem, a second left-turn lane heading south will be created on Route 378.

This would be achieved by widening the existing bridge, essentially adding a parallel road exclusively for northbound traffic on the southern portion of the structure.

Existing ramps will also be realigned and work will be carried out to “smooth out” the intersection with Third Street.

Additionally, a one-way northbound direct access ramp from Second Street to the bridge is planned to eliminate bottlenecks at Third and Wyandotte Streets and provide another access point.

The two existing roof structures are to be preserved.

Improvements to the traffic lights and pedestrian crossing at the southern entrance to the bridge are also planned, Teles said.

The plan is to keep the bridge four lanes during the construction period “for as long as possible”, which will be made possible by night work and work on weekends, among other things.

He says signage also needs to be improved to better communicate the transition from the highway to the city grid when exiting the bridge on the south side of the city.

Possible improvements include maintenance work on the Main Street on-ramp and a possible Second Street exit.

To develop the project, PennDOT officials have held meetings with various local stakeholders, they say, including the city of Bethlehem, Fountain Hill Borough, Lehigh University, St. Luke’s and ArtsQuest.

Pedestrian connections are to be improved, but there are restrictions

Some concerns have been raised about multimodal improvements to the bridge, as the bridge’s east and west sidewalks connect pedestrians and cyclists from South Bethlehem to different parts of the city – while those coming from Fountain Hill are rerouted to West Bethlehem and those coming from the Third Street direction are directed to Main Street with no way to cross directly to the other side from the bridge.

Scott Slingerland, executive director of the Lehigh Valley Coalition for Appropriate Transportation, said the project could provide an opportunity to connect the South Bethlehem Greenway project to the D&L trail, arguing that this could be done for a “relatively small percentage of the project budget.”

He said the current six-foot-wide sidewalks were not enough to adequately connect cyclists and pedestrians and hoped the sidewalks could be extended.

Teles said there are limitations on the changes they can make without altering the bridge’s footprint, but that plans are in place to expand the walkway on the new section of bridge and that the new ramp to Second Street may be able to provide a connection between the two paths in the future.

He also said pedestrian islands and improved pedestrian signaling are planned at the south entrance to the bridge.

“We’re trying to balance that out and figure out how to improve it as much as we can. But we’ve been paying attention to those things,” Teles said.