Scranton Beltway project design restart announced

Lackawanna County (WOLF) — Friday officials announced a Design restart for the Scranton Beltway Project.

The project would include two new connections in Lackawanna and Luzerne County from PennDOT's Interstate 81.

Encouraging the use of the Turnpikes Interstate 476.

"The utilization of the turnpikes northeast extension between Pittston area and Clarks Summit and that is a wildly under used segment in our region while 81. As we all know is wildly over used. In fact 81's daily vehicle count far exceeds what it was designed to build,"Mike Carroll,State Rep. Democratic Chair, PA House Transportation Committee said.

PennDOT reporting about 70,000 vehicles travel on Interstate 81. Far exceeding the highways original design.

Rich Roman District Executive PennDOT Engineering District 4 saying the Beltway Project is essential for safety.

"Elevate some of the congestion. improve some of the mobility and ultimately make this area and this corridor safer," Roman said.

Residents in Abington township having been fighting the project for years.

Saying they were caught off guard with todays announcement .

"We fought it thinking if we fought it hard enough it wouldn't happen, but that is obviously not the case," Ann Tompkins said.

With the new plan residents like Ann and Walter Tompkins have the possibility of losing their homes through eminent domain - the right of the government to take private property.

"And our street Willow lane is on there and there is a black line that goes right through all of our homes," Ann Tompkins explained.

Ann and Walter built their house in 1977 and have lived there ever since.

"Our kids were raised here, you know our grand children come here it is all of the memories. It is not the house it's all of the memories and what we went through to get the house done," Ann Tompkins said.

The Turnpike has not released final project designs yet, leaving residents not knowing if their home will be standing in the next few years.

"A lot of us are so old. I'm 73 years old by the time they are done playing games and if they force us by the law and by the courts I will be 75 and 76 where am I going to go," Walter Tompkins said.

Officials working on the project plan on working on designs and doing community outreach next year with plans of starting construction in 2025