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Philadelphia’s Chinatown Stitch plan has avoided the threat of being put in limbo thanks to a decision by a regional planning organization to dedicate $10 million to the project.
The city wants to build a park over a section of the Vine Street Expressway, in an effort to “stitch” Chinatown back together after the neighborhood was bisected by the roadway’s construction in the 1980s and 90s.
Planners have released preliminary designs for the park, but the project’s future fell into doubt last summer after the Trump administration’s budget reconciliation legislation, the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, clawed back most of a $159 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant that had been previously awarded for engineering and construction work.
On Thursday, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission came to the (partial) rescue, agreeing to shift $10 million from a reserve account for federal highway projects to the Chinatown Stitch.
Together with a $2.5 million contribution from the city, it will allow engineering design to continue for the next two years while officials in Philadelphia and other states lobby for renewed federal transportation grants for their projects.
“It was unfortunate when the funding was rescinded last year, but we’re hopeful that it will be restored,” said Christopher Puchalsky, a director in the city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems. “What we can do is make this project shovel-ready, and show that we’re ready for federal funds and that this is a project that ticks lots of boxes, regardless of your party.”
“It’s going to provide a lot of benefit and address some of the harms of the current expressway, but it’s also going to generate a lot of economic opportunity for the Chinatown neighborhood, for Callowhill, and other areas of the city,” he said.
Prospects for the $10 million award had been uncertain, with some DVRPC board members who represent other counties in the region saying it would be unusual to approve design dollars for a project whose full funding had been rescinded.
“I don’t think all of them were as familiar with the project and what it was trying to achieve,” Puchalsky said. “Once we explained the project, we got a lot of support on it. There’s the matter of finding the construction funding — they wanted to understand that a little bit better. Once we had those conversations, we were able to move this forward. Maybe it’s not an everyday thing, but it’s not terribly unusual.”
Lobbying for full funding
The new funding will pay for engineers to design the underlying structure of the Stitch. Once completed, the $207 million project would cover two and half blocks of I-676 from 10th to 13th streets.
In addition to a cap over the below-grade road, the city will need to reinforce the expressway’s walls to support the park, which is expected to include lush gardens inspired by Chinese traditions, a plaza for events, a food kiosk, a water feature and other elements, and draw potentially hundreds of visitors at a time.
Officials had planned for construction to begin in 2027 and take two years. The funding cancellation delayed the start date to at least 2029, although Puchalsky said that could be moved up if the money is restored quickly.
The Biden administration had awarded the project two grants worth a combined $162 million. The funding came from the $3.3 billion Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhood Access and Equity programs, which sought to help economically disadvantaged areas like Chinatown that were impacted by past highway projects.
The feds rescinded the uncommitted portion of the second, $159 million grant, leaving just $8 million, which the city has been spending on initial design and engineering work.
OTIS did extensive public outreach in Chinese and other languages to inform the park’s design, and designers presented renderings of the eastern sections last August. The western part, between 12th and 13th street, is described as a second phase that has not yet been designed.
Planners will submit preliminary engineering documents to PennDOT and the city next week with the goal of receiving a critical environmental approval this spring, Puchalsky said.
That will be followed by another round of public engagement in May or June to discuss the design of the park’s playground and other elements.
“This isn’t just us designing it, especially for a community-driven project like this,” he said. “We really want to put the public in the designer’s chair, so to speak.”
The next opportunity to have the Chinatown Stitch’s funding fully restored could come in September, when the most recent federal surface transportation bill expires and Congress may want to reauthorize spending for road, bridge, transit and other projects across the country, he said.
He noted that a recently passed federal budget bill restored $30 million of the rescinded Reconnecting Communities funding, and that Congressman Brendan Boyle has co-sponsored legislation restoring most of the remainder.
Funding was rescinded for road work “in both red and blue states across the country,” Puchalsky said. “We’ve been working with those other localities to try to ensure that there is some funding for these types of projects in the new transportation bill.”
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