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PENNDOT: I-81 WIDENING WOULD COST $695 MILLION
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| by Borys Krawczeniuk |
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May 6, 2003 - Scranton Times - PITTSTON TOWNSHIP -- U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter predicted economic growth for Northeastern Pennsylvania from a wider Interstate 81 as he promised Monday to push for the estimated $695 million project.
"This is the major link and I'm determined to do something about it," Mr. Specter said during a news conference at a state park-and-ride lot just off the interstate's Dupont/Pittston interchange. "You widen this to six lanes and it'll have a terrific impact on bringing jobs, jobs, jobs into this area."
Widening I-81 between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre would cost about $695 million and could take 12 or 13 years, said state Department of Transportation District Engineer Charles Mattei, who called the project the region's top priority.
The construction would widen the 33 miles of increasingly congested highway from four to six lanes between the Nanticoke and Clarks Summit interchanges.
The support of Mr. Specter, R-Philadelphia, is important as Congress moves ahead later this year on authorizing transportation projects for the next five years. Mr. Specter is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has a huge say over the nation's pocketbook.
A crowd of more than 25 local officials joined him at the news conference.
"It's not only the ability to have an efficient flow of goods in and out of our region," said Cameron Moore, chief executive officer of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Alliance, a regional economic development group. "But also the idea that we have to be concerned about public safety."
Officials cited the interstate's heavy truck traffic as a major safety concern.
Attorney Daniel Munley, who recently won a $400,000 award for a client whose van was rear-ended by a truck on Keyser Avenue in Scranton, wasn't at the news conference but later said a wider interstate will help car drivers who fear out-of-control trucks.
"The more room you can give them, the better off they'll be," said Mr. Munley, a member of the board of the American Trial Lawyers Association's Interstate Trucking Litigation Group.
Mr. Mattei's projected cost was the first solid estimate PennDOT has provided. The amount would make it the most expensive project in the regional office's history. Only the Casey Highway between Scranton and Carbondale -- at $475 million -- comes close.
PennDOT is spending up to $500,000 to study what it will take to pull off the widening.
"We envision 12 to 15 contracts to do this and we believe we can have the first contract in place within about 2 to 2 years where we would actually begin construction," Mr. Mattei said.
He said the first contract would probably target the stretch with the most traffic: the three miles from the Davis Street/Montage Mountain exit to the Central Scranton Expressway. About 75,000 vehicles a day -- including as many as 30,000 trucks -- travel through that stretch.
Traffic has doubled again in the last decade after doubling between 1970 -- only a few years after the interstate opened here -- and 1990, Mr. Mattei said.
The project would include reconstruction of the Avoca interchange, which leads to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, Mr. Mattei said.
Mr. Specter said he doubts all the money will come in the upcoming federal transportation authorization bill, but could not say how much the bill will contain.
"This will be a long-term project and we want to get started," he said.
Although an assistant PennDOT engineer last year said the project would cost between $500 million and $1 billion, estimates years ago gave the project a $250 million price tag.
"The new estimates include all new ... bridges -- from the bottom up since most of the bridges out there are 40 years old -- and it also involves construction of noise barriers in every area that they qualify," Mr. Mattei said.
The federal government would pick up about 80 percent of the cost with the state paying the rest.
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