Veterans Memorial Bridge rehab faces further delays as price tag nears $300 million

Bridge inspectors have checked the Veterans Memorial Bridge for deterioration several times over the past three years.

JOE LINTNER | COLUMBIA SPY 

Columbia Borough officials are planning to call for support from congressional lawmakers after learning that funding for the long-delayed rehabilitation of the Veterans Memorial Bridge remains elusive.

At the August 25, 2026 borough council meeting, Mayor Leo Lutz reported on a meeting he attended earlier that day with the Transportation Technical Advisory Committee of the Lancaster County Planning Commission, where he was told the bridge rehabilitation project may be pushed back further.

"This has gone on for better than 15 years," an exasperated Lutz said. The price tag has gone from 30 million to 300 million and probably higher till '28."

"Having been on that committee for years, I understand — I know that the projects on there on the transportation improvement plan far exceed the amount of money that's available," he said. "And when you got a $300 million project, you can see that. Is it going to happen? I don't know."

With a recent federal grant application unsuccessful, Lutz argued that local and county officials need to appeal more directly and forcefully to their federal representatives for help — rather than trying to fund the bridge solely through the state's regular transportation allocation.

"Why are we trying to do this with the money that we get from the state? Why don't we engage the federal transportation commission — where our federal, you know, our elected federal officials, our senators and our congress people — and talk to them about getting with folks in Washington about funding these big-ticket dollar items," Lutz said. He pointed to a past federal program, the TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) grant, that Lancaster County had unsuccessfully applied for several times, and said the same coordinated, high-level approach is needed now.

"We need to get with our elected officials in Washington and talk to them and say, 'You need to go and lobby for us to get this one — fix this bridge,'" Lutz said. He noted that he is already working with state Representative Bryan Cutler's office and local representative Brett Miller to arrange meetings with U.S. Representative Lloyd Smucker and U.S. Senator Dave McCormick to press the issue directly.

"I think what I truly believe is Lancaster County hasn't engaged the municipalities enough," he said. "I think they're waiting for it to fall down — get so bad that they can say, 'Okay, we're going to carry — we're not spending money.'"

Lutz emphasized that the bridge's importance extends well beyond Columbia, given its role as a key link — and detour route — between Lancaster and York counties. "The economic impact to Lancaster County and York County is tremendous to that bridge remaining and remaining open and in good shape," Lutz said.  "It's on the historic register, the National Historic Register." 

Lutz: "I think they're waiting for it to fall down — get so bad that they can say, 'Okay, we're going to carry — we're not spending money.'"
[File photo]

Council Vice President Heather Zink noted that final design work is underway. "What's going on with the bridge right now is they're finalizing the designs and everything, and it'll go out to bid at the end of this year," she said. "The county engaged our federal contacts and everything, and we did submit a grant request for federal dollars for that bridge funding, and we were informed this week that we were not receiving that money from the federal dollar," Zink added.

According to Zink, the rehabilitation project is expected to go out to bid by the end of 2026, even as questions remain about how the  cost will ultimately be financed and whether the timeline will hold. 

The bridge has been the subject of rehabilitation planning since studies began around 2016. What started as a roughly $30-54 million project has ballooned dramatically after a 2023 inspection uncovered serious cracking and deterioration in the floor beams and support columns, prompting PennDOT to redesign the scope of work into a far more extensive rehabilitation. The project is now estimated at more than the previous estimate of $234 million, and Lutz suggested the price could climb even higher by 2028.

The current plan calls for the project to move forward in phases, with a full closure of the bridge to vehicles, cyclists, and pedestrians lasting approximately three years during construction, which is expected to span about five years in total.

Built in 1930, the Veterans Memorial Bridge originally carried Route 30 before the newer Wright's Ferry Bridge took over that designation in the 1970s. The 1.26-mile span is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and is believed to be among the longest multi-arch concrete bridges in the world.