JPI's Harrisburg-Hershey area road meet, May 2026

[jpi]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Some of you have heard me mention of a possible Harrisburg area roadmeet for spring 2026, It is now official!  

2026 Harrisburg\ Hershey Pennsylvania area road meet

Saturday May 16, 2026

The focus of this meet is the on going construction of bringing I-83 into the 21st century making it a modern and much wider interstate around Pennsylvania's capitol city along with a look at some unique stuff around Hershey and the "river routes" north of Harrisburg

The plan is we will meet at 11am at Gilligan's Restaurant\ Lounge on Eisenhower Blvd. just down the road from the interchange of the same name.
After lunch we will drive to the nearby Target shopping center, park our vehicles and car pool from there.
As you all know I have a mini van that can seat up to 6.

From there we see part of an old alignment of US 322 near the Pennhar Dr exit then head east on US 322 to check out the construction at the Chambers hill RD- Grayson Rd intersection that by then will be wrapping up. There is a "Welcome to Hershey" billboard along 322 just past the Hummelstown exit, this is where we will take our group pic, we will park our cars along West End Ave near the on ramp for 322 east, walk up to the billboard and take our pic. Next we will get back on US 322 east which US 422 splits from and goes into downtown Hershey and we will check out some unique features in Hershey from the Hershey Kiss shaped streetlights to an old railroad underpass still accessible near Hershey Park Dr. After checking out the railroad underpass we will get back on US 322 west and head back towards the Eisenhauer interchange and check out some of the surface roads in and around the interchange. Then we will drive along Paxton St past the site of the old Harrisburg East Mall (for you retail fans) and see some of the 83 construction from there.

We will also take a drive along the "river routes" up to the Amity Hall area. For those who don't know the river routes are US 11-15 on the west shore and US 22-322 on the east shore, there is some interesting stuff along both corridors. This includes Ft Hunter park which includes a covered bridge mention there is also the Rockville railroad bridge which is a very long stone arch bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River and gets a lot of freight and passenger train traffic (for you railroad fans), we have the PA 849 bridge across the Junita river where it flows into the Susquehanna and goes under the Norfolk Southern\ Amtrak line (this is known locally as the Duncannon subway)  Also there is a "ghost" alignment of 22-322 by the Rutters convenience store and is accessible too.

As we get closer to the date I will have a more fine tuned itinerary set up complete with maps and some facts about the areas we will be going through


I know this meet is about 5 months out so plenty of time to plan your trip and request your days off from work and for me to fine tune the itinerary, the first leg of it is still the 83 construction and Hershey stuff but the second half will be the river routes, all of this is within an hour from Harrisburg

Also there is plenty of lodging options all around metro Harrisburg within minutes from where we will be meeting up, most of the hotels are decent and include brands from Choice, Wyndham and Marriott


At the end of the meet decide on dinner, there is a nice restaurant overlooking the Susquehanna River and offers nice views of Harrisburg call Dockside Willys, I am open to any and all suggestions for this. Unfortunately the Harrisburg Senators will be at away games that week

[baugh17]

Just offering food for thought...May 9 is Mothers Day weekend and May 23 is Memorial Day weekend.

[jpi]

Just offering food for thought...May 9 is Mothers Day weekend and May 23 is Memorial Day weekend.

Yes keeping those dates in mind  memorial Day weekend may help with getting time off too but thanks for the heads up

[jon12791]

I vote for Sunday of Memorial Day weekend!

[jpi]

I vote for Sunday of Memorial Day weekend!

Sorry, traditionally road meets have always been on Saturday and I would prefer to stick with that. Also so far memorial Day weekend is not the preferred weekend in the poll

[Roadgeek Adam]

My plan was a meet in Middletown NY on June 6, the day before my girlfriend's birthday, so I voted for the most separation.

[jon12791]

I vote for Sunday of Memorial Day weekend!

Sorry, traditionally road meets have always been on Saturday and I would prefer to stick with that. Also so far memorial Day weekend is not the preferred weekend in the poll

no problem

[hbelkins]

Not that I'm likely to be able to make it, but my preference is Memorial Day weekend. I voted accordingly.

[jpi]

Thanks everyone, the polls don't close until the end of the year but already it looks like 5/16 is winning but alot can change between now and the end of the year. I noticed so far no input on the other question I had-

Last is 2 possible options, I will let you all decide on either option, either we drive the old alignment of US 22 (Jonestown Rd) out to the Berks County line or we drive along the old US 111 alignment (Susquehanna Trail) from Lemoyne south to York

Feel free to cast your vote on this too! 

[74/171FAN]

My decision would be neither, but it is not my meet, and I can drive those alignments on my own time easily enough.

I personally would push for the covered bridge at Fort Hunter and a drive through of the rock fence along US 11/US 15 south of Marysville amongst other things.  The old signage on the Airport Connector Road has all been replaced so I would not push for that.

[Mr. Matté]

...a drive through of the rock fence along US 11/US 15 south of Marysville amongst other things.

On the topic of the thread itself, I have no preference but am interested in attending. I don't have any specific plans that far out yet, but would agree with others to avoid Mother's Day and Memorial Day weekend.

[jpi]

Last is 2 possible options, I will let you all decide on either option, either we drive the old alignment of US 22 (Jonestown Rd) out to the Berks County line or we drive along the old US 111 alignment (Susquehanna Trail) from Lemoyne south to York

Ok, did some thinking, I think I am going to scrap the above options all together and focus on the "river routes" up to the Amity Hall area. For those who don't know the river routes are US 11-15 on the west shore and US 22-322 on the east shore, there is some interesting stuff along both corridors. Besides the covered bridge Mark David Moore mention there is also the Rockville railroad bridge which is a very long stone arch bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River near Ft Hunter, we have the PA 849 bridge across the Junita river where it flows into the Susquehanna and goes under the Norfolk Southern\ Amtrak line (this is known locally as the Duncannon subway)  Also there is a "ghost" alignment of 22-322 by the Rutters convenience store and is accessable too.

Again I know this meet is about 8 months out so plenty of time to fine tune the itinerary, the first leg of it is still the 83 construction and Hershey stuff but the second half will be the river routes, all of this is within an hour from Harrisburg and I am open to any and all suggestions    I'm still keeping the polls open but so far May 16 is looking like the most voted for day so we will see.

[jpi]

Hello everyone
I know it has been rather quiet on here, I have been doing some minor scouting on what will be our tour from Hershey up to Clarks Ferry along the river routes. There has been another contract let on another phase of construction on 83, the 19th st. overpass will be getting demolished sometime after the first of the year and more contracts will be let next year. The Eisenhour interchange construction will start in 2027 but property acquisition has been on going. I plan to post the official Facebook event page sometime around Christmas. More to come! 

[jpi]

Quick Update-

Looks like the 19th St overpass will be demolished the night of Saturday 11/15 so 83 will be closed in that area with detours posted, it will all be open in time for the Monday morning rush hour.

Also I had lunch at the meet restaurant (Gilligan's) and it was very good, I also had a brief meeting with one of the managers to give them a heads up on our meet, they have meeting rooms that will accommodate for a large group, I will get more details as we get closer. Again Facebook announcement will be posted next month and my scouting for this meet continues, I have our group photo location picked along with designated stops including areas where the new Eisenhower interchange will be built.

[74/171FAN]

Also I had lunch at the meet restaurant (Gilligan's) and it was very good, I also had a brief meeting with one of the managers to give them a heads up on our meet, they have meeting rooms that will accommodate for a large group, I will get more details as we get closer.

I guessed correctly on lunch. 

[jpi]

Hello!
Hope everybody had a nice Thanksgiving! Just a reminder voting for the dates for my road meet ends this coming weekend, looks like 5/16 is still the winner, again I plan on making the Facebook announcement on Christmas Day. Also I have come across some interesting info on another big I-83 Capitol Beltway project that coincides with the existing projects, a new 10 lane wide South Bridge (John Harris)! I will continue scouting and planning for the tour and also the restaurant is set for our lunch which will include a private room similar to my 2018 road meet in Shamokin Dam.
Again stay tuned for the "official" announcement   

[jpi]

The poll has closed, looks like Saturday May 16 is the date!    my official announcement and event post will take place at some point on Christmas Day

[kevinb1994]

Hi Jason,

I'm definitely interested in this meet...I haven't been to Central PA since the York/I-83 meet (since we did use it south of the Pike) in 2016. That was the one where it actually managed to unexpectedly snow at a then-unusual time of the season (year?)...and to make matters worse, that was the first meet that I recall, where I somehow managed to get separated from y'all in the region (PennDOT-wise) between Allentown (not that we were supposed to head there ) and Reading (pretzel, road meet twist ).

Have a safe 'rest of the holidays'...

[jpi]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Some of you have heard me mention of a possible Harrisburg area roadmeet for spring 2026, It is now official! 

2026 Harrisburg\ Hershey Pennsylvania area road meet

Saturday May 16, 2026

The focus of this meet is the on going construction of bringing I-83 into the 21st century making it a modern and much wider interstate around Pennsylvania's capitol city along with a look at some unique stuff around Hershey and the "river routes" north of Harrisburg

The plan is we will meet at 11am at Gilligan's Restaurant\ Lounge on Eisenhower Blvd. just down the road from the interchange of the same name.
After lunch we will drive to the nearby Target shopping center, park our vehicles and car pool from there.
As you all know I have a mini van that can seat up to 6.

From there we see part of an old alignment of US 322 near the Pennhar Dr exit then head east on US 322 to check out the construction at the Chambers hill RD- Grayson Rd intersection that by then will be wrapping up. There is a "Welcome to Hershey" billboard along 322 just past the Hummelstown exit, this is where we will take our group pic, we will park our cars along West End Ave near the on ramp for 322 east, walk up to the billboard and take our pic. Next we will get back on US 322 east which US 422 splits from and goes into downtown Hershey and we will check out some unique features in Hershey from the Hershey Kiss shaped streetlights to an old railroad underpass still accessible near Hershey Park Dr. After checking out the railroad underpass we will get back on US 322 west and head back towards the Eisenhauer interchange and check out some of the surface roads in and around the interchange. Then we will drive along Paxton St past the site of the old Harrisburg East Mall (for you retail fans) and see some of the 83 construction from there.

We will also take a drive along the "river routes" up to the Amity Hall area. For those who don't know the river routes are US 11-15 on the west shore and US 22-322 on the east shore, there is some interesting stuff along both corridors. This includes Ft Hunter park which includes a covered bridge mention there is also the Rockville railroad bridge which is a very long stone arch bridge that crosses the Susquehanna River and gets a lot of freight and passenger train traffic (for you railroad fans), we have the PA 849 bridge across the Junita river where it flows into the Susquehanna and goes under the Norfolk Southern\ Amtrak line (this is known locally as the Duncannon subway)  Also there is a "ghost" alignment of 22-322 by the Rutters convenience store and is accessible too.

As we get closer to the date I will have a more fine tuned itinerary set up complete with maps and some facts about the areas we will be going through


I know this meet is about 5 months out so plenty of time to plan your trip and request your days off from work and for me to fine tune the itinerary, the first leg of it is still the 83 construction and Hershey stuff but the second half will be the river routes, all of this is within an hour from Harrisburg

Also there is plenty of lodging options all around metro Harrisburg within minutes from where we will be meeting up, most of the hotels are decent and include brands from Choice, Wyndham and Marriott


At the end of the meet decide on dinner, there is a nice restaurant overlooking the Susquehanna River and offers nice views of Harrisburg call Dockside Willys, I am open to any and all suggestions for this. Unfortunately the Harrisburg Senators will be at away games that week

Happy Christmas Eve everyone! I have revised and updated the front page of my post. Tomorrow I will make a Facebook event for this  Any questions just let me know, again Saturday May 16, 2026 is the official date.

[jpi]

Happy February 1!    We are getting closer and closer to this road meet! Construction has really ramped up along I-83 from 13th St to 29th street and lots of property acquisition going on in the area of the Eisenhower Interchange, here is a link to what the future Eisenhower will look like in the next decade, this includes when the projects will be let, the first one will be late next year.

https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/penndot/documents/projects-near-you/District-8-Projects/i-83-east-shore-section-2/sr0083-078seq-of-constr-contract-graphic2025-august-for-website.pdf

[74/171FAN]

Happy February 1!    We are getting closer and closer to this road meet! Construction has really ramped up along I-83 from 13th St to 29th street and lots of property acquisition going on in the area of the Eisenhower Interchange, here is a link to what the future Eisenhower will look like in the next decade, this includes when the projects will be let, the first one will be late next year.

https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/penndot/documents/projects-near-you/District-8-Projects/i-83-east-shore-section-2/sr0083-078seq-of-constr-contract-graphic2025-august-for-website.pdf

There are tons of odd-looking PennDOT No Trespassing signs on Derry Street (though I think the wind keeps forcing them to fall over).

[jpi]

Happy February 1!    We are getting closer and closer to this road meet! Construction has really ramped up along I-83 from 13th St to 29th street and lots of property acquisition going on in the area of the Eisenhower Interchange, here is a link to what the future Eisenhower will look like in the next decade, this includes when the projects will be let, the first one will be late next year.

https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/penndot/documents/projects-near-you/District-8-Projects/i-83-east-shore-section-2/sr0083-078seq-of-constr-contract-graphic2025-august-for-website.pdf

There are tons of odd-looking PennDOT No Trespassing signs on Derry Street (though I think the wind keeps forcing them to fall over).

Thats ok, still working out the details for the tour, I do plan on taking us on Derry St with a potential stop near the Derry St interchange at eisenhower but It will be quick 

[noelbotevera]

Oh snap, do you need a headcount? Mark me as interested since I still live in the area.

[skatcher]

I'll be there

[jpi]

Oh snap, do you need a headcount? Mark me as interested since I still live in the area.

Thanks for letting me know, I don't need a head count yet but I would say by the end of April yes I will