Philadelphia will receive $37 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation for two long-awaited infrastructure projects — one near the Museum of Art and the other along the Schuylkill River Trail.
The surprise announcement in the final days of the Biden administration means that years of on-again, off-again planning to calm the chaotic mix of pedestrian and auto traffic between Eakins Oval and the Rocky steps can finally move ahead.
“These funds will help realize part of an ambitious vision to transform the fragmented spaces and unsafe roadways of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway into a unified and vibrant urban park for all,” said Scott Cooper, president of the Parkway Council, which represents institutions along the roadway.
The city will receive $23.3 million for the Eakins Oval and Parkway work, as well as $13.7 million for a plan to close critical gaps in the Schuylkill River Trail, officials said Friday.
The latter project will build new trail sections called the Wissahickon Gateway Trail and the Passyunk Connection. The work will complete a nearly seamless, 39-mile pedestrian and bike path between Philly and Pottstown.
The grants “will allow us to continue the positive growth of our city’s transportation network for all modes of travel,” Mayor Cherelle Parker said in the funding announcement. “These projects will provide much needed connections with a focus on traffic safety in Southwest, Northwest, and Center City.”
USDOT also separately announced a $2 million grant to the Center City District’s project to extend the elevated Rail Park from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue.
More park, less way
For more than a decade, planners have been working on redesigns that would make the Parkway more park-like and welcoming to pedestrians and less of a roaring highway. That effort led to yearly summer pop-up events in Eakins Oval, and a city-led design process that launched in 2021.
At one point planners proposed finishing a reconstruction by next year’s Semiquincentennial celebrations, but that timeline was dropped. The Reimagine the Benjamin Franklin Parkway coalition was set to publish a conceptual redesign last year, but the release has been delayed.
A year ago, the state announced a $1.8 million grant, funded from red-light camera fines, for a survey of the Eakins Oval area, environmental clearances, and preliminary design work, although the exact scope of the work was not spelled out.
That became somewhat clearer with Friday’s announcement of the new USDOT RAISE grant. The project will create a new traffic pattern, intersection and traffic signal improvements, pedestrian connectivity and ADA-accessibility improvements, bike lanes in the outer lanes of the Parkway between 22nd Street and Eakins Oval and Pennsylvania Avenue, and traffic-calming measures, according to the federal agency.
“The project will improve safety by eliminating pedestrian-vehicle interactions, reduce vehicular lane changes, simplify intersections for the most vulnerable users, and effectively reduce or eliminate crash-related injuries and fatalities,” a USDOT summary says. It will improve “active transportation mobility” and reduce car dependence by improving pedestrian and bike options, the document says.
The conceptual design is being finalized and will be shared in the coming months, per the Parkway Council. The announcement did not say when engineering plans will be finalized or construction will begin.
Planners have envisioned the Eakins Oval work as the first part of a larger reconstruction of the Parkway area. That could entail closing the outer lanes to cars and creating more green space; expanding Logan Square into a proper park and extending it over the Vine Expressway; putting a part of Spring Garden Street south of the museum underground, with a walkable green space over it; and creating a biking and pedestrian street on the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive Bridge.
The MLK Bridge is currently closed for an unrelated rehabilitation project that is supposed to be completed this year.
Closing a “critical gap”
The Schuylkill River Trail announcement is being celebrated by the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia as a “major funding win.” Building out the area called the Wissahickon Gateway will close a “critical gap” in the trail and the Passyunk Connection will create a new section adjacent to historically disadvantaged communities, the group said.
The new portions of trail will add 1.29 miles to the multi-use riverside pathway and make it a complete 39-mile pedestrian and bikeway, with the exception of one .65-mile road section in the city.
The project will provide a 2,000-foot trail and bridge for people who currently have to use a narrow road shoulder and sidewalk along Main Street and Ridge Avenue in Northwest Philadelphia, a stretch that has a high rate of auto accident rates, the city said. It’s also expected to spur new development on adjacent properties.
The Wissahickon Gateway Trail “will be an anchor for new shops, offices, housing, public transit service, riverfront green space, and multi-use trail connections between Center City, Northwest Philadelphia, and neighboring Montgomery County,” according to news release from Parker, U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman.
The route is part of the Circuit Trails, a network of hundreds of miles of multi-use paths in southeastern Pennsylvania and central and southern New Jersey. The Circuit Trails Coalition had identified the Wissahickon Gateway as a priority trail segment for construction within the city, per the Bike Coalition.
The Manayunk Development Corporation released a vision plan for the Wissahickon Gateway Trailhead last month, and a project update meeting will be held at the Venice Island Performance Arts Center on Feb. 5, according to the coalition.
Meanwhile, the Passyunk Connection “will remove barriers to safe, affordable, and equitable mobility options” along the Schuylkill River Trail, according to the news release.
It will extend the trail about 4,500 feet south along the river, from its current endpoint on the Bartram’s-to-61st segment to Passyunk Avenue, the city said. Officials noted that the project area is flanked by the planned Lower Schuylkill Biotech Campus to the northwest and the Bellwether District, which is under construction, to the east.
“The Passyunk Connection will directly connect the surrounding community members and broader region to the economic opportunities provided through these new developments,” the city said.
Extending Philly’s elevated park
USDOT separately announced that the Rail Park will get funding from the Reconnecting Communities Program of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The funds will pay for construction documents for a project to extend the existing, quarter-mile-long elevated park with a new section, the Viaduct Greenway, that will run for six-tenths of a mile from Vine Street to Fairmount Avenue. The abandoned Reading Railroad viaduct, which consists of 6.8 acres of brownfields, was built in the 1890s and last used in 1984.
Expanding the park will require environmental remediation, structural repairs, and construction of a trail with basic lighting, safety elements and multiple points of access, according to the Center City District, the downtown business organization that has been pushing for the extension.
“This $2 million grant represents a crucial step forward in converting a deteriorating industrial infrastructure into a vibrant public space, providing an expanded amenity for four adjacent Philadelphia neighborhoods,” Center City District board chair Paul Levy said.
Additional features will be designed in partnership with adjacent community groups, CCD said. A design is also underway to connect the new greenway to the USDOT-funded Chinatown Stitch, which will cover a portion of I-676 along two blocks of Vine Street.
Congressman Brendan Boyle, who helped win the funding, said the Viaduct Greenway will improve access to schools, health care, and local businesses, promote walking and biking, and “connect neighborhoods, improve access to key destinations, and give residents more green spaces to enjoy.”
Long-term plans envision a three-mile-long Rail Park created by extending the trail further along the abandoned elevated train structure.
Editor’s note: The grant total in the headline and for the combined RAISE grants have been corrected.
