Brady PieperThe Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has put an estimated price tag of $77.4 million for a bridge renovation project in Lehigh Valley. The century-old Hill to Hill Bridge will receive funding from both state and local sources to renovate and expand the historic structure.
In a Lehigh Valley Transportation Study (LVTS) meeting, county officials outlined the planning for Hill to Hill Bridge project. With a completion date set for 2029, the Hill to Hill Bridge will see a second southbound turn lane, existing rampway realignment, a new one-way access ramp, lighting improvements and other upgrades. Officials say the bridge renovations will reverse some of the damage from decades of use and alleviate traffic to improve first responders’ access to emergency services.
To fund the project, the city of Bethlehem anticipates investing $8.4 million in grants to the bridge with PennDOT providing the remaining $69 million through the recently-amended 12-year plan (TYP), Pennsylvania’s official mid-range planning tool for infrastructure and transportation projects. Funding for the project includes $56 million allocated over the next four years.
The Hill to Hill Bridge Project began in 2021, which is currently in the engineering stage. County officials anticipate construction bids to be released by late 2025 or early 2026.
The current iteration of the Hill to Hill Bridge, completed in 1924, intersects the Lehigh River in Bethlehem. The structure, a vital link for state Route 378, also connects Bethlehem’s north and south sides and intersects with key routes like U.S. Route 22 and state Route 309.
Designed by Clarence W. Hudson, the inventor of the Hudson Truss, the Hill to Hill Bridge features two unique 171-foot truss spans that allow for entry and exit ramps. The bridge is the only version of this truss configuration in the country, maintaining a national importance to the bridge community. In its time, the bridge’s design not only served practical transportation needs but also represented a significant engineering achievement, showcasing the capabilities of early 20th-century bridge construction. The bridge serves over 55,000 vehicles daily.
The bridge site’s history spans over 229 years, enduring several bridge replacements, floods and reparation efforts. That history makes the bridge a contributing piece of the Central Bethlehem Historic District, and also crosses over the Delaware and Lehigh Canal National Heritage Corridors.
As the Hill-to-Hill Bridge prepares for its major transformation, the project aims to blend modern functionality with the preservation of a historic landmark, ensuring that Bethlehem’s vital connection remains both efficient and respectful of its heritage.
In addition to preservation, goals for the project include maintaining four lanes as much as possible, communicating road typology from highway to city grid, minimizing impacts to cultural resources, not impeding on future renovations, and improving the 2nd street connection and preserving the main road.
“(Hill to Hill Bridge) really was a major part of the town and the development of it,” Gannett Fleming Eastern PA Transportation Manager Brian Teles said in the LVTS meeting. “The bridge today is very unique and impressive, but if you look at some of the other parts of the structure that were tied into it years ago, the other ramps to come on, it was even more impressive when it was originally built. It’s quite a unique structure.”
Shuvaev, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
