Capping the Vine Street Expressway to reunite Chinatown could progress despite the loss of federal money

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is working to keep the city’s project to cap the Vine Street Expressway moving after Washington last year yanked $150 million in promised federal money.

The project was dependent on a $159 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant covering the entire cost.

But only $8.4 million was committed before the Republican policy-and-budget legislation called the Big Beautiful Bill, enacted in July 2025, killed most of the Neighborhood Access and Equity grant program, and the rest of the promised money disappeared.

The Chinatown project involves building a cap over I-676 from just east of 10th to 13th Streets, allowing for a park as well as more developable land. It would tie together Chinatown and the neighborhood to the north, which was part of the community until the interstate split it.

Now, DVRPC has figured a way to put together $12.5 million to replace some of the lost money, enough to complete the final design.

“We are taking this administrative action to keep the project moving,” DVRPC spokesperson Elise Turner said.

For the design work, $10 million would be obtained from another federal program for improvements on the national highway network. That money is available in the region’s reserve controlled by PennDot, DVRPC staff said.

The city would contribute $2.5 million.

The Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems is working to secure the money and is “confident” that will happen, a spokesperson said, while declining to disclose details.

As for construction, “funding will have to be figured out later,” said DVRPC’s Turner.

The agency determines priorities for regional transportation projects.

To receive any federal funds, a project needs the formal blessing of a metropolitan planning organization. For the Philadelphia region, that is the DVRPC.

Meanwhile, preliminary engineering work is continuing, financed by the $8.4 million. The project is expected to receive environmental approvals in the spring, DVRPC said.

President Donald Trump and the GOP congressional majorities have been targeting Biden-era initiatives for elimination, including various transportation-equity programs — to fund projects like the Stitch — that began under the national infrastructure act of 2022.

In late 2023, construction of the cap was projected to begin in 2027, although at other points a groundbreaking was anticipated in 2028.

The timeline is currently unclear.