A pedestrian-friendly revamp of Market Avenue in Previous Metropolis formally launched this week, with the aim of constructing the town’s historic district safer and extra welcoming within the massive anniversary yr of 2026 and past.
The $16 million venture will slim Market Avenue between 2nd and sixth streets from 4 lanes to a few and add raised, sidewalk-like bicycle lanes. It should create a cobblestoned, raised intersection at 2nd and Market, broaden a median strip right into a pedestrian plaza, and make different street enhancements.
Supporters of the venture additionally hope to put a statue of the Lenape chief Chief Tamanend on the plaza. It will be relocated from a spot a pair blocks away, subsequent to an I-95 on-ramp, if Indigenous teams approve the transfer.
“We’re speaking a couple of super civic house, one which this neighborhood deserves,” stated Michael Carroll, deputy managing director of the town’s Workplace of Transportation and Infrastructure Programs, at a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday. “We’re speaking a couple of new historic landmark in Philadelphia that actually signifies what this complete space, this complete metropolis, this complete nation is about. And we’re speaking about security.”
The venture started nearly a decade in the past with an effort by the Previous Metropolis District, the world’s enterprise enchancment group, to reimagine the neighborhood forward of the U.S. Semiquincentennial or 250th Anniversary in 2026, OCD govt director Job Itzkowitz stated.
Celebrations of the nation’s birthday, FIFA World Cup video games, the MLB All-Star recreation and different occasions are anticipated to attract hundreds of thousands of tourists to Philadelphia beginning slightly greater than a yr from now. Many will go to Previous Metropolis historic websites alongside or close to the revamped part of Market Avenue, just like the Liberty Bell, Franklin Courtroom and Independence Corridor.
The venture space is “a key historic hall,” Carroll stated.
“We anticipate that is going to be a magnet for tourism. It’s the place quite a lot of the social cloth of our nation first got here collectively. We would like folks to go to an area like that and actually simply soak that up,” he stated.
A deal with site visitors security
Work truly started final month with the elimination of brick pavers from the Market Avenue median and crosswalks and the position of non permanent asphalt.Â
As development continues, the road will quickly develop into eastbound solely to permit contractors to make use of a part of the roadway for development, stated Kelley Yemen, director of the town’s workplace of multimodal planning. Parking might be restricted at occasions, and vehicles in spots with “No Parking” indicators might be towed.
As soon as the venture is full, someday earlier than summer time 2026, the stretch between 2nd and sixth may have one lane of site visitors in every course, down from two presently, plus a central turning lane, per OTIS. There’ll proceed to be curbside parking.
The venture will add devoted left-turn lanes at intersections, sidewalk bump-outs at intersections, longer bump-outs at bus stops, and upgraded wheelchair ramps.
Pedestrian crossings might be shorter, and new site visitors indicators might be put in with new sign timing to prioritize pedestrians. Officers famous that Market Avenue is on the town’s Excessive-Damage Community, the 12% of streets the place 80% of site visitors fatalities and severe accidents happen, and stated the work will assist the town get nearer to reaching its Imaginative and prescient Zero aim of no site visitors deaths.
“This venture actually shares that imaginative and prescient of the best way to make our streets safer, but in addition usable for all modes of transportation, whether or not you’re driving, whether or not you’re strolling, bicycling, no matter it could be,” stated Councilman Mark Squilla, a supporter of the plan from early on.
The Previous Metropolis District’s preliminary idea for the venture included curb-protected, on-street bike lanes, however the closing design adopts parking-separated, raised lanes, considerably just like the raised bikeway on the Delaware River Path.Â
Most of Philly’s bike lanes are delineated simply by a line of paint on the street. Over the previous decade flexi-posts have been added to some lanes as nicely, or they’ve been protected by being positioned between the curb and a row of parked vehicles. Town can be contemplating placing low concrete obstacles alongside the closely used bike lanes on Spruce and Pine streets.Â
Chris Gale, govt director of the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia, stated he was inspired to see raised lanes now being put in as nicely.
“We’re very excited to see these modifications occurring. If they begin in Previous Metropolis, let’s get them by way of the remainder of the town,” he stated. “It is a nice strategy to show the idea works in Philadelphia.”
A part of broader imaginative and prescient for Previous Metropolis
When Itzkowitz first introduced the venture concept to Squilla a number of years in the past, the councilman was enthusiastic and urged redoing Market Avenue all the way in which to Metropolis Corridor. After consulting with Paul Levy, then the CEO of the Heart Metropolis District, they determined that may be too formidable.
Levy stated, “that sounds nice, however there’s one thing to be stated for incrementalism,” Itzkowitz recalled. “So why don’t you do it over there first, see the way it goes, and we’ll go from there.”
OCD commissioned a survey and examine that led to the preliminary street food regimen proposal in 2017, which the town adopted and agreed to assist fund.Â
The Independence Historic Belief, a nonprofit that helps Independence Nationwide Historic Park, helped elevate personal funds and labored to make sure the venture had the “highest design requirements” and materials requirements, Itzkowitz stated.
“With this substantial refresh of Market Avenue and, inside it, the creation of Tamanend Plaza, we purpose to reveal the momentum for extra enhancements in our historic space for all residents of Philadelphia and certainly from the remainder of the world to find the pleasure on this place for hundreds of years to return,” stated Invoice Marrazzo, who’s board chair on the Independence Historic Belief and WHYY’s CEO.
The belief is in discussions with Native American tribes because it seeks their settlement to the transfer of the Tamanend statue, Marrazzo stated.
The belief’s help for the Market Avenue work is a part of its broader imaginative and prescient for the district that features renovation of a park at 2nd and Market and creation of the Commerce Avenue pedestrian walkway to attach a number of historic websites. It has proposed street narrowing and different work round Franklin Sq., pedestrian enhancements on sixth Avenue, and different tasks.
Along with $4 million in contributions from the Independence Historic Belief and funding from the Previous Metropolis District, the Market Avenue enchancment venture is receiving help from the state by way of its Automated Purple-Gentle Enforcement program, Division of Neighborhood and Financial Growth, Multimodal Transportation Fund, and Redevelopment Help Capital Program, OTIS stated. The U.S. Division of Housing and Land Growth additionally offered funds.