For seven weeks, there was exactly one legal way to drive out of Montgomery Borough toward Muncy or Williamsport: north on Route 54 to Interstate 180, then back down Route 405. That changed by midnight on September 21, when PennDOT reopened the Route 54 bridge that has carried Montgomery traffic over the West Branch Susquehanna since 1938. Flagging crews were still working single lanes on September 22 and 23 while the contractor finished up, so today is the last stretch before the crossing runs at full width again.
What most of the coverage of the closure left out is that PennDOT never actually built one detour. It built two. The highway loop through I-180 was for cars and trucks. A second, separate route, laid out for Bicycle Route J and Amish horse-drawn traffic, ran through Musser Lane, then straight through the middle of Muncy on Main Street and Water Street, before circling back into Montgomery Borough. For seven weeks, the region's slowest traffic used the older road between the two towns while its fastest traffic used the newer one.
What The Closure Actually Cost Drivers
On August 3, the contractor closed Route 54 between 1st Street in Montgomery Borough and River Road in Muncy Creek Township to remove a section of the bridge deck and pour a new concrete overlay, along with curb repairs and new joint seals. The work was part of a $1.9 million contract awarded to J.D. Eckman Inc. For the length of the closure, PennDOT posted a car and truck detour using Route 54, I-180, and Route 405, a loop that runs north around the river instead of straight across it.
The reopening didn't happen all at once either. PennDOT announced the bridge would carry traffic again by midnight on September 21, then kept single-lane flagging in place during daylight hours on September 22 and 23 while the crew wrapped up. That means for the seven weeks between August 3 and September 21, the closest thing Montgomery had to a direct river crossing was the interstate.
The Detour That Wasn't Really New
The second detour, the one built for bicycles and Amish buggies, tells a different story. PennDOT's project route for that traffic runs over Musser Lane, designated Route 1001, into Northumberland County, then back through Main Street in Muncy Borough and Water Street through Muncy Creek and Clinton Townships before returning to Montgomery. It's a longer way around on a map than the interstate loop, but it isn't a road built for a construction season. It's the town-to-town connection that existed before the interstate bypass did, still maintained, still functional, and still the more direct answer to how the two towns connect without a highway.
That distinction matters. Montgomery sits along the West Branch about six miles southwest of Muncy, and the two boroughs have shared civic life for generations independent of whichever bridge happens to be open. The high school football rivalry between the two towns has been played annually since 1961 for a trophy called The Shoe, made from an old athletic shoe found in the Muncy High School locker room. The two towns also ran separate Little League charters for 64 years, with Montgomery billed as the second oldest Little League in the world, until the programs merged into one in 2011. None of that history runs through I-180. The bridge was never what tied Montgomery to Muncy. It was just the fastest way to make the trip.
What Never Needed The Bridge At All
Most of daily life in Montgomery sits on the Montgomery side of the river and never touched the detour in the first place. Main Street still runs a library, a coffee shop, a pizza place, and a post office, the mix the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership describes in its profile of the borough as a river town tucked between Muncy and Watsontown. The borough's boat launch and its parks sit along the river without needing to cross it, and Riverside Campground operates on the same bank. Four Friends Vineyard & Winery, on Cemetery Hill Road, sits on 33 acres overlooking its own vineyard and the Susquehanna Valley, also without needing the bridge to reach it. None of that closed. None of that detoured.
Two other fixtures kept running through the closure on schedules that don't bend for traffic patterns. Footprints of Montgomery, the food pantry serving the Montgomery Area School District, held its regular second and fourth Thursday hours the entire seven weeks. Broad Street Car Wash, one of the businesses that donated to the borough's Fourth of July fireworks display this year, sits on the same stretch of town as the coffee shop and the pizza place, the side of the river that was never on the other side of anything.
The Timeline, In Order
- August 3: Route 54 closes between 1st Street and River Road for deck removal and the new overlay.
- September 21: Bridge reopens to traffic by midnight.
- September 22-23: Single-lane conditions with flagging during daylight hours while the crew finishes.
- Total project cost: $1.9 million, contractor J.D. Eckman Inc.
One Crossing Again
By the end of today, the flagging finishes and Route 54 goes back to carrying two full lanes across a bridge that has done that job since 1938. The interstate loop that carried most car and truck traffic for seven weeks goes back to being the long way around. The older road through Musser Lane and Muncy's Main and Water Streets goes back to being the route used by bikes and buggies rather than the only sanctioned crossing. Neither one was ever really a detour built for this project. They were the two connections that already existed between Montgomery and Muncy, and for seven weeks, one of them just carried more weight than usual.
If the closure had you re-learning back roads you hadn't driven in years, or wondering how a town this size manages to run a food pantry, a vineyard, and a 65-year football rivalry on schedules the river never interrupts, Century 21 Colonial Real Estate has been paying attention to this stretch of the Susquehanna for a long time. Contact us if you want a local's read on anything else happening around Montgomery.
