Project Keystone wins a Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award! On September 18, 2008, Preservation Pennsylvania awarded Project Keystone a Preservation Initiative Award to PennDOT, the FHWA, and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers for their effort to preserve stone arch bridges in the Greater Philadelphia area.

The Stone Arch Bridges of the Pilot Management Plan are:

  • Located in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery or Philadelphia Counties
  • 20 feet or longer (as measured by the arch opening)
  • Used for vehicular traffic (but not for trains)

Project Keystone is a bridge management plan focused on the 124 examples with spans of 20 feet or more (shorter spans are primarily culverts). It provides a comprehensive treatment of these particular bridges and facilitates decisions about them as a group rather than on an individual basis.

The Plan has three components:

  1. The development of criteria for prioritizing the bridges according to their suitability for preservation.
  2. Recommendations for maintenance procedures and the development of a program to carry out regular maintenance on those bridges selected for preservation.
  3. A system for monitoring and updating the Plan.

The goal is to produce sound management recommendations for each bridge and integrate them into PENNDOT's transportation improvement and maintenance planning and procedures.