August 12, 2025
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PennDOT will begin implementing safety improvements along a portion of Vine Street, which will close lanes from Aug. 18 to Jan. 16.
Lane closures on Vine Street will begin next week and last until mid-January as part of an $8.5 million safety improvement project.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced last week that work will be done along the pathway between 8th and Broad streets. The three-lane road will be reduced to two lanes in both directions and the extra space will be repurposed for pedestrian, bicycle and transit uses, according to PennDOT's project webpage.
PennDOT will also reduce pedestrian crossing distances, install ADA-compliant curb ramps, conduct traffic signal improvements, build buffered bike lanes and more.
From Monday, Aug. 18, to Friday, Jan. 16, there will be lane closures every weekday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in both directions. PennDOT said drivers should expect backups and delays around the area.
The project is expected to be fully completed by summer 2026.
The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission and PennDOT pitched the safety improvements along the busy road in a 2018 study entitled "Reviving Vine: Improving Multimodal Connections on Vine Street," which also mentioned putting a cap over the expressway to reconnect the Chinatown neighborhood.
The future of the cap, otherwise known as the Chinatown Stitch project, has been called into question with federal funds being clawed back, Axios reports.
Krys Johnson, safety press officer with PennDOT, said the upcoming safety improvements are being conducted separately from the proposed Chinatown Stitch project and there are no updates on funding.
