About the Project 

This collaboration with the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) enlivens the pedestrian and vehicular tunnels on Philadelphia’s 5th Street, using art to craft a better transportation experience for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists alike. Wide swaths of color and pattern will evoke movement and continuity through the tunnels, brightening the spaces and affirming the DRPA’s missions of stewardship, service and community. The murals will also pay homage to the service of the behind-the-scenes bridge workers—those who built the historic Ben Franklin Bridge that rises above the tunnels, and those at work on the bridges that connect Pennsylvania and New Jersey today. Brad Carney, Melissa Mandel and Mat Tomezsko have been commissioned to create two murals for the Authority. Carney and Mandel will collaborate on a mural for the 5th Street Pedestrian Tunnel and Tomezsko will create a mural for the 5th Street Vehicular Tunnel.

The DRPA is a regional transportation agency that serves as steward of four bridges that cross the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New Jersey: the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Commodore Barry, and Betsy Ross Bridges. Through the Port Authority Transit Corporation (PATCO), the DRPA also operates a rapid transit line between Camden County, New Jersey, and Center City Philadelphia.