The Judicial Conference today announced its 2017 courthouse-construction priorities, and a new MDPA courthouse in Harrisburg PA sits at the top of the list. The announcement is here, the list is here, an overview of the Harrisburg project is here, and the inadequacies of the current courthouse are described here.

According to the list, the Harrisburg new courthouse project is in the “concept design” stage, with the site partially acquired and over $50 million (about a quarter of the total budget) already spent. A 2016 local news story reports that the courthouse will be 243,000 sq. ft., and quotes a Congress member saying, “This has been a long time coming.”

The Third Circuit currently has one judge based in the Middle District of Pennsylvania — Judge Thomas Vanaskie, whose chambers are in the Scranton courthouse — but none in Harrisburg.