This area of roadway north of Bushkill Access will be one of the areas of US Route 209 that will be under improvement during 2022 NPS/M.Cuff

Work to rehabilitate a stretch of U.S. 209 that runs through Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in Pennsylvania will begin in the spring.

According to the National Park Service, $6.5 million from the Great American Outdoors Act will be used to rehab a seven-mile stretch of the highway. It will be the first phase of a $21.5 million project to improve the park’s primary north-south route on the Pennsylvania side.

“This  road  project  will  modernize a vital piece of the park’s infrastructure and enhance  safety and  access for the  millions of people who  visit  Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area each year and for local residents and commuters who use this road each day,”  said  park Superintendent  Sula Jacobs. “It will  address  one of the largest and most expensive infrastructure needs in the park.  Route 209 is top-priority road that serves as an emergency route for local communities and provides access to those communities and to popular recreational facilities located along the corridor. However, it is currently in very poor condition with failing pavement, poor drainage, and numerous potholes.” 

In the first phase of the Route 209 project, the entire stretch of road between mile marker 0 in Middle Smithfield Township, Monroe County, and mile marker 7 in Lehman Township, Pike County, will be rehabilitated.

Work will include milling the existing pavement, conducting full depth patch repair and spot base repair, culvert replacement, reconstruction of shoulders and line striping. The repair of the road surface, subsurface and drainage systems will extend the life of the road, eliminate the ongoing cost of frequent patching of potholes and other temporary corrective measures, and improve safety for motorists and bicyclists, including correcting the steep drop-offs on the road’s shoulders.

The project is being financed through GAOA’s National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund which, along with the recently passed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other construction funding sources, is part of a concerted effort to address the large maintenance backlog in national parks. When completed, this project is expected to eliminate $16.8 million of the Water Gap's maintenance backlog.