DELAWARE WATER GAP, PA. — The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC) recently contracted an engineering firm to design a series of roadway, maintenance, and facility improvements at or near the Delaware Water Gap (I-80) Toll Bridge during 2027 and 2028.
The contract also will include design of new fuel dispensing and management systems for Commission vehicles at the Easton-Phillipsburg (Route 22), Portland-Columbia (Routes 46, 611, and 94), and Milford-Montague (Route 206) toll bridges.
The professional services contract was awarded to French & Parrello Associates, P.A. of Wall Township, N.J. for a not-to-exceed amount of $2,048,386.79 at the Commission’s June 28 meeting in Yardley, PA. The planning work is now getting underway and it’s envisioned that the resulting designs will be packaged into two separate construction procurements that would go out to bid in early 2027 and mid-2027, respectively.
The first of these construction contracts would involve roadway work in the vicinity of the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge. This would include spall repairs, new parapets, and resurfacing on the two-lane bridge that carries Oak Street across I-80 in the Borough of Delaware Water Gap, PA.
The little-used overpass structure is owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, but the Commission will make improvements to it so it can better serve a new Commission-owned site on the northern side of I-80. The site consists of five separate parcels totaling 3.69 acres that the Commission purchased in 2023 for purposes of improving the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge’s maintenance and winter-storm-response operations.
The initial construction contract in early 2027 also would include repairing, cleaning and sealing of the toll bridge’s roadway deck along with replacing the toll bridge’s highway lighting electrical-supply system. During this period, design work will continue behind the scenes for a series of new maintenance buildings and related improvements that would be constructed at the Delaware Water Gap location under a second contract expected to go out to bid in summer 2027.
This second project phase would address an array of space, storage, and operational needs identified in a report – the Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge Facility Concept Study – which was completed earlier this year.
The Concept Study identified the following improvements to be made at the Commission’s newly expanded campus flanking both sides of I-80 in the Borough of Delaware Water Gap:
- A barn-styled salt storage building with a reinforced-concrete floor and reinforced-concrete lower walls to prevent storage mishaps, and side roofs for storage of plows and other outdoor maintenance equipment;
- Magnesium-chloride tanks and brine-mixing station near the new salt-storage barn;
- An approximately 8,400 square-foot vehicle/equipment storage building;
- A vehicle fueling area with a canopy near the new vehicle/equipment storage building;
- A fuel-management system to ensure sufficient supply and monitor employee usage;
- Electronic security system and controls at the new site;
- A bridge monitor office in the administration building on the south side of I-80; and
- Replacing and/or upgrading various other site components (lightning protection, paging systems, waste removal, heating systems, etc.).
The Delaware Water Gap Toll Bridge opened to traffic December 16, 1953, originally carrying U.S. Route 611 between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The bridge was re-designated as part of I-80 after Pennsylvania completed its first I-80 segment to the west in 1960. Tolls were originally collected in both directions until 1989, when the facility was converted to one-way collections (Pennsylvania-bound). Cash collections ended at the bridge in January 2025, leaving E-ZPass and TOLL BY PLATE license-plate billing as the sole payment options.
The bridge is the Commission’s longest river crossing and it carries the third highest traffic volumes among the Commission’s 18 vehicular bridges. The bridge serves as a major gateway connection between the New York/North Jersey metropolitan region and year-round recreational destinations of Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains region. The bridge also serves a major national freight connection between North Jersey ports and points west and north. The bridge carried an average of 49,800 vehicles per day in 2025.
Due to its length and mountainous location, the bridge is a challenge to plow and salt during winter months. It regularly encounters the second highest number of winter-weather related salting and plowing events among the Commission bridges each year.
The bridge has dual parallel 16-span riveted steel multi-girder structures, each approximately 2,465-feet long. The upstream structure carries traffic in the westbound (PA-bound) direction. The downstream structure carries traffic in the eastbound (NJ-bound) direction. The downstream structure also has a five-foot-wide walkway, which is the Appalachian Trail connection between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The bridge’s supporting piers and abutments are reinforced concrete with granite facings. Piers are circular columns with a taper into the river flow and cantilevered caps. Piers in the riverbed are supported by steel pilings. Other piers, the abutments, and curtain walls of cellular spans are supported on concrete bed footings. The bridge’s roadways are 59 feet above normal water level.
