PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. — Two bridge closures have blocked South Main Street in Phillipsburg, Warren County, stopping vehicle traffic through the downtown corridor. NJDOT inspectors closed a concrete span over the Norfolk Southern Railroad spur after finding it structurally deficient. The agency shut it to vehicles on April 8 at 7:35 p.m. Pedestrians walked across again the next evening at approximately 7:30 p.m., but the bridge remains closed to cars.

On February 6, NJDOT closed the Black Bridge, a through-truss structure over the Lehigh rail line adjacent to the concrete bridge, for inspection and maintenance work. According to the South Main Street Audio Tour, the Black Bridge is a through-truss steel bridge of approximately 140 feet, built in 1913 and dedicated to Phillipsburg police officer Kenneth "Red" Vandergrift, who died in the line of duty in 1930. That closure came two months before the concrete bridge shutdown, but both structures sit on the same downtown corridor. Both are over 110 years old; both are managed by NJDOT.

The concrete bridge, Structure No. 2154-160, carries South Main Street over the Washington Secondary, a 24-mile-long Norfolk Southern branch that carries freight at 10 miles per hour on a single track. Dover and Delaware River Railroad, a short-line freight operator, leases the branch from Norfolk Southern. The historic Union Station's plaza and sidewalk share the same structural framework as the bridge’s deck.

Adjacent to the plaza, the Black Bridge carries South Main Street over the Lehigh Line, Norfolk Southern's main freight corridor that moves about 25 to 30 trains a day through Phillipsburg. The Washington Secondary ends at Phillipsburg, where it interchanges with the Lehigh Line before the main track continues west across the Delaware River into Easton, Pennsylvania. The station building sits between the two active lines, just east of the interchange.

A 2024 planning study for the concrete bridge found severe scaling and spalling, as well as exposed reinforcement that had rusted. The construction was "non-redundant," meaning any single component failure could collapse the span. The bridge sat too close to the railroad tracks underneath it by modern standards. Engineers classified it as functionally obsolete: it no longer met current design standards for clearance, materials and structural redundancy, though it was still carrying traffic at the time. After the April 8 inspection found the bridge could no longer safely support any load, NJDOT closed it that evening.

The two shutdowns severed a primary artery for the town's restaurants, shops and historic district. The street leads past the former Union Station, now occupied by a railroad heritage group and seasonal tourist excursions. The concrete bridge sits at the boundary of the South Main Street Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Business owners told WFMZ in June that the closures have turned the street into a “ghost town.” South Main Street saw more than a dozen new business openings in 2025, including an arts association, craft studio, pet spa and gym, according to Lehigh Valley Live. The Phillipsburg Downtown Association, which represents more than 60 members, has built a revitalization strategy around the Four Rs: Railroads; Recreation; Riverfront Activities and Festivals; Restaurants. Both bridge closures restrict the walkability and access that the strategy requires.

This is not the first time bridge work has disrupted the corridor. In 1992, the Black Bridge underwent repairs and the council approved a detour away from South Main Street to keep $200,000 in state funding for the project. Business owners protested that routing traffic away from the corridor would push shoppers to Memorial Parkway and cause "the total demise of downtown." The estimated repair time was 11 months.

Phillipsburg cannot fix the bridges itself because NJDOT maintains the structures. The town has no legal authority to repair or replace the state-controlled spans. Warren County owns a third bridge, the South Main Street span over Lopatcong Creek. That county-owned bridge received $1.15 million in FY2022 Local Bridges Fund grants for replacement and $1.15 million in FY2023 for reconstruction. It remains in the planning phase. The county-owned bridge sits near Carpentersville Road, while the state-managed bridges sit at the center of downtown.

Locals have called the concrete structure an "orphan bridge" for at least 34 years. A July 1992 Morning Call article quotes then-Councilwoman Meryl Crozier noting the bridge is an “orphan,” not owned by the town, by the state, or by Conrail, the federally-created freight railroad formed from bankrupt Northeast lines that existed from 1976 to 1999. TAPinto Phillipsburg defines the term as a roadway structure with no clearly defined legal owner or agency responsible for maintenance.

NJDOT's 2024 planning document, the April 2026 press release and the municipal website all identify the state as the bridge’s maintainer, if not its owner, but precisely when the state assumed responsibility for this specific bridge is not documented in any source available to this report. The 1988 Railroad Overhead Bridge Act gives NJDOT authority to assign jurisdiction over abandoned railroad overhead bridges. NJDOT's FY2026 capital program includes an Orphan Bridge Reconstruction program with $1.75 million allocated, but the program has existed since at least FY2024. The Local Aid Infrastructure Fund has authorized orphan bridge funding since 2016. No document lists individual bridge acquisitions. The Railroad Overhead Bridge Act may be the mechanism by which NJDOT assumed responsibility for this structure, but the exact transfer date and method remain undocumented.

On April 29, Mayor Randy Piazza Jr., Council President Keith Kennedy and Police Chief Thomas McDonald met with NJDOT Commissioner Priya Jain and her engineering team at the Phillipsburg municipal building. Mayor Piazza stated that he "appreciate[d] the state's partnership in tackling yet another piece of failing infrastructure that has impacted our community." Council President Kennedy told TAPinto Phillipsburg that he "was pleasantly surprised they said they will get on this right away. They have a definite plan."

“I think things are moving along at a better pace,” he added. “I'm very happy with NJDOT, Commissioner Jain, and her staff, and they are going to get the bridge open as soon as possible.”

A conference call on the same day as the meeting brought together Governor Mikie Sherrill's office, NJDOT, State Senator Steinhardt, Assemblymen John DiMaio (R-23rd) and Erik Peterson (R-23rd), Warren County commissioners and municipal leaders. The state is exploring economic relief options for affected businesses.

NJDOT provided a timeline at the April 29 in-person meeting: a temporary repair plan for the concrete bridge expected by May 4, with limited reopening to one lane in each direction by early July. The Black Bridge remains closed with no reopening date. Because both bridges sit adjacent on South Main Street, the concrete bridge's limited reopening would not restore through traffic without the Black Bridge also opening.

State Senator Doug Steinhardt (R, 23rd District), whose constituency includes Phillipsburg, reported on May 29 that NJDOT had completed access agreements with the railroad and ordered materials for the repair. The Senator said work could begin the week of June 1 if the concrete already ordered was sufficient for the first phase, or the week of June 8 if additional materials were needed. As of June 5, NJDOT has not confirmed whether work has begun.

The Phillipsburg bridges are two of hundreds of aging structures in the state inventory. New Jersey has 6,825 bridges, many of them maintained by counties and municipalities rather than NJDOT. The average age of a bridge in the state is 57 years. As of 2025, 392 are structurally deficient. NJDOT's FY2026 capital program allocates $1.745 billion in state funds and $1.23 billion in federal funds for bridge work. The agency also maintains $63 million for bridge emergency repairs. NJDOT is handling the Phillipsburg repairs as an emergency, outside the capital program's normal prioritization process.

NJDOT spokesperson Steve Schapiro told NJ.com that "NJDOT's investments in bridge projects has continued the trend of reducing the number of bridges in poor condition, which has steadily dropped since 2000."

The concrete bridge stays closed to vehicles, while the Black Bridge stays closed to everything. Freight trains pass underneath on both lines. Vehicle traffic remains blocked from the downtown corridor. NJDOT has aimed for limited reopening of the concrete bridge to one lane in each direction by early July, but the Black Bridge has no confirmed reopening date. South Main Street waits.

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Sources

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• NJDOT, "NJDOT to Close South Main Street Bridge in Phillipsburg" (April 8, 2026)

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• P.L.2016, c.56, Local Aid Infrastructure Fund (2016)

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• Larry Higgs, NJ.com, "NJDOT: New Jersey has 392 structurally deficient bridges" (October 9, 2025)

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• WFMZ, "Officials aim to get South Main Street Bridge in Phillipsburg open to 2-way traffic by mid-July, mayor says" (May 29, 2026)

• WRNJ, "Steinhardt Provides Update on Phillipsburg Bridge" (May 29, 2026)

• TAPinto Phillipsburg, "Phillipsburg and NJDOT Provide Timeline for Urgent Repairs to South Main Street Bridge" (April 29, 2026)

• Lehigh Valley Live, "South Main Street bridge in Phillipsburg could reopen in early July, officials say" (May 3, 2026)

• Lehigh Valley Live, "South Main Street bridge project in Phillipsburg gets piece of $43.7M in state funds" (June 3, 2022)

• Lehigh Valley Live, "Warren County gets $1.5M from NJDOT to rebuild 2 bridges in P'burg, Mansfield Township" (July 28, 2023)

• Lehigh Valley Live, "More than a dozen new businesses opened near P'burg in 2025" (January 18, 2026)

• Morning Call, "P'BURG APPROVES DETOUR COUNCIL ACTS TO KEEP STATE FUNDS TO FIX BRIDGE" (July 29, 1992)

• Your Audio Tour, "South Main Street Historic District" (accessed June 5, 2026)

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