Environmental assessment for Scranton Beltway project underway
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Environmental assessment for Scranton Beltway project underway
The $236 million project would connect the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Interstate 81 near the Dupont-Pittston Twp. border. It also would include new bridges, culvert extensions, sound barriers and stormwater management facilities. It is designed to reduce congestion on I-81, with connections allowing motorists to more easily drive between the highway and Interstate 476. The project has been greeted with skepticism and opposition from the public.
The assessment, listed as being in progress on the administration’s website, is expected to conclude in July.
The project will proceed to its final design phase once the highway administration issues a finding of no significant impact, Marissa Orbanek, press secretary for the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, which is overseeing the project, said in an email last week.
The public comment period for the project closed in December, she said.
The $236 million project would connect the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Interstate 81 near the Dupont-Pittston Twp. border and in South Abington Twp., with connector ramps at the Wyoming Valley and Clarks Summit interchanges. It also would include new bridges, culvert extensions, sound barriers and stormwater management facilities.
It is designed to reduce congestion on I-81, with connections allowing motorists to more easily drive between the highway and Interstate 476. Studies done by the commission have shown more than 70,000 vehicles travel every day on I-81 between the interchanges. The turnpike has about 10,000 vehicles daily between Dupont and Clarks Summit.
The project has been greeted with skepticism and opposition from the public, as the commission plans to buy five occupied homes and tear them down, plus one other already acquired — as well as permanent easements on more than a dozen properties for traffic lanes, sound barriers and other features.
An online petition to stop the project has received nearly 20,000 supporters listed as of Friday.
Orbanek said if the Federal Highway Administration issues a finding of no significant impact, the project will proceed to final design, which is expected to last an additional four years.
Construction is planned for 2030.
Monday update
THEN: The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission took public comment in person at two hearings in the fall and online about the Scranton Beltway project.
NOW: The Federal Highway Administration is working on an environmental assessment for the project.