READING, Pa. – During its Committee of the Whole meeting Monday night, Reading City Council heard about the most viable options for the Centre Avenue Bridge project to accommodate Norfolk Southern height requirements.
In 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation requested meetings with the city to discuss projects for the Centre Avenue and the North Fifth Street bridges.
The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission and Norfolk Southern are requiring the elevation of both bridges so the bridges can accommodate double-decker railcars to pass through the city.
The cost of both projects will be covered by PennDOT.
Kyle Zeiber, public works director, said one option could be to eliminate the bridge and replace it with a pedestrian bridge, forcing automobile traffic to be rerouted.
But Zeiber said the option being favored is to change the slope of the roadway and create a single lane to keep traffic flowing through Centre Avenue.
“At the last meeting we had, public works, fire and police all together reviewed the plans and give their input,” Zeiber said. “It was an anonymous agreement that we go with the one-lane bridge option.”
Zeiber explained that with the elevation change, the height of the road will require that retaining walls will have to be built along the properties on both sides of the street on Centre Avenue.
Zeiber said PennDOT was questioned about whether the retaining walls would be the responsibility of PennDOT or the property owners to maintain, but did not receive a definitive answer.
Councilmember Chris Miller, who represents the district where the bridge is located, said his major concern is that both bridges are major roadways to major arteries into the city.
“Whatever is decided, I hope it’s something that we can live with because it’s obviously not something that’s going to be reversed,” Miller said. “This is a once and done thing, and we need to keep that in mind.”
Miller also expressed concerns about the potential loss of some of triangular park next to the Centre Avenue bridge.
Councilmember Jaime Baez said he supports keeping the bridge open.
“I think that option in the long term is going to be more viable, especially for accessibility for our first responders as well and to avoid adding more traffic to the nearby streets,” Baez said.
Council said it also wants to see confirmation from PennDOT before it gives the OK for PennDOT to proceed with engineering designing for the new one-lane bridge concept.
Zeiber said the current plan is for demolition and construction to begin in 2030.
Council did not review the options for the North Fifth Street bridge Monday night.
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