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The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission is conducting a multi-year environmental assessment of alternatives to improve mobility and provide a safe and reliable river crossing for the Washington Crossing Bridge to connect Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Overview
The Washington Crossing Toll-Supported Bridge is approximately 120 years old with piers dating back nearly 200 years. Despite numerous repairs, the bridge faces issues such as narrow lanes, limited weight capacity, needed safety improvements, and operational inefficiencies.
The Commission’s consultant, HDR, Inc. and its team of subconsultants, will perform various data gathering activities in support of the assessments, including detailed bridge inspection, field surveys, traffic counts, environmental studies, archeological and cultural resource investigations, and stakeholder forums. The data will be used to further define purpose and need, identify resources in the vicinity, and help guide the development of alternatives to improve the river crossing.
Alternatives will be assessed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), concluding with the identification of a preferred alternative.
Schedule
The schedule below depicts the major activities and milestones associated with the Washington Crossing Bridge Alternatives Analysis, which will take approximately 30 months to complete. At key points throughout the process, various outreach events will take place to present information and obtain input from motorists, pedestrians, residents, business owners, and other interested parties. In addition to the milestone public meetings, stakeholder and regulatory agency meetings will occur at various times.
Visit this website often to stay up-to-date on how to get involved.
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About the Washington Crossing Bridge
The current steel, double-Warren-truss Washington Crossing Bridge opened as a privately owned tolled crossing (collected from vehicles and pedestrians in both directions) on April 11, 1905. The bridge is the third structure to exist at this location, all of which were supported on portions of the original rubble stone-faced masonry constructed in 1833-34. It is the narrowest of the Commission’s 18 vehicular bridges over the Delaware River, with a 15-foot-wide roadway that carries two 7.5-foot-wide lanes — one in each direction – and has been rehabilitated multiple times over the past 12 decades. The bridge carried an average of 7,200 vehicles per day in 2023. Its highest usage years were 2013 and 2016 when the bridge handled an average of 7,500 vehicles per day.
The bridge has a three-ton weight restriction, enforced by bridge monitors stationed 24/7 at a shelter on the bridge’s New Jersey approach and stationed part-time in patrol vehicles on the bridge’s Pennsylvania approach, where no bridge monitor shelter presently exists. More than 2,000 oversized vehicles were turned away at the bridge in 2023.
George Washington’s Star
The Commission has designed a project-specific logo that depicts the connection that the Washington Crossing Bridge provides between the two states while acknowledging the area’s historic significance. The star in the logo was used on a blue flag, flown to mark General George Washington’s presence on the battlefield during the Revolutionary War.
