As part of the planned Duryea levee project, Luzerne County has been asked to decommission the Stephenson Street Bridge over the Lackawanna River so it can be demolished.
County Manager Romilda Crocamo said the span is essentially inactive and not accessible to public vehicles because one side is blocked with a gate.
The subject will be discussed at Tuesday’s county council work session and came up during last week’s meeting of the county Flood Protection Authority, which oversees the Wyoming Valley Levee system along the Susquehanna River.
Duryea had received state and federal mitigation funding through the county authority to study work needed to bring its levee up to federal standards. Additional federal and state funds must be pursued to pay for the actual levee upgrades, officials have said.
Primarily along the Lackawanna River, Duryea qualifies for the mitigation funding because the raised Wyoming Valley Levee creates upstream backwater when it floods, preventing the Lackawanna from draining into the Susquehanna where the two rivers meet in Duryea, officials have noted.
Duryea had worked with the state to close a two-block gap in its one-mile levee after 139 borough properties were flooded in 2011, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has decided it won’t certify the older remaining levee for flood insurance purposes because it has deficiencies, including a freeboard buffer on top deemed insufficient based on the latest flood threat modeling, officials have said.
Joints of some storm pipes passing through the older levee also have separated, causing water to permeate and erode the earthen wall, officials have said.
Authority Executive Director Christopher Belleman said last week that removal of the Stephenson Street Bridge will save approximately $750,000 on the levee upgrade costs.
With a bridge closure system included, the most recent engineer’s estimate of probable construction costs was $9.2 million, an authority Duryea levee project summary said.
Belleman said design is approximately 75% complete, and Crocamo asked authority and project representatives to brief council on the plans and bridge decommissioning request.
County council’s last public engagement with the Duryea levee project was in 2021, when the authority needed council authorization to revise its articles of incorporation so it could assist Duryea with its levee upgrade.
Duryea officials have said they want to pay the county authority to maintain the borough levee when it is upgraded to ensure it continues to meet required standards, saying the borough does not have that expertise.
No Wyoming Valley levee fee funds will be used for the Duryea levee, and payments made by the borough will be segregated, authority officials have said.
Council granted the authorization to change the articles of incorporation in November 2021.
Borough officials had implored county council members to provide the clearance, with then-borough council president Jeffrey Bauman saying the levee project “impacts properties, lives and the future of a residential town.”
When the Susquehanna rose to a record high in September 2011, backup from the Susquehanna caused the Lackawanna River to flow north, another official had said.
Bridge background
The 268-foot crossing was constructed around 1959 to replace a bridge demolished during Hurricane Diane in 1955, according to county records and prior-published reports.
Crocamo said she will be meeting with a Duryea borough representative next week to further discuss the matter.
She is working to piece together historic data on the bridge and why it has been blocked off on the largely undeveloped side of the Lackawanna River, noting the county does not have a key to the gate.
According to a 2016 published report, Duryea officials said the gate was closed because the bridge leads to “empty land,” including some used for a past sand and gravel operation, and officials wanted to prevent illegal dumping and other criminal activity.
Crocamo said she and some council representatives attended a levee project briefing and learned the bridge will “adversely impact the effectiveness of the levee.”
In turn, the levee project is needed to protect properties and help reduce the cost of flood insurance for borough residents, she said.
While the elimination of a bridge from the county’s inventory would be a positive for county government, the driver of a demolition is flood protection and cost savings for borough residents, Crocamo said.
The county also has no funds to invest in upgrades to the span with so many other demands for repairs to roads and bridges that are essential for public transport, she added.
Council’s Tuesday work session follows a 6 p.m. voting meeting at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for the remote attendance option posted under council’s online meetings link at luzernecounty.org.