A section of Wilkes-Barre Boulevard opened between East Market and East Northampton streets on Sept. 1, 1978. Picture published in the Times Leader Sept. 2, 1978.
                                 Times Leader file

A section of Wilkes-Barre Boulevard opened between East Market and East Northampton streets on Sept. 1, 1978. Picture published in the Times Leader Sept. 2, 1978.

Times Leader file

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<p>Construction on the Downtown Distributor, later renamed Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, in April 1978. Picture published in the Times Leader April 19, 1978.</p>
                                 <p>Times Leader file</p>

Construction on the Downtown Distributor, later renamed Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, in April 1978. Picture published in the Times Leader April 19, 1978.

Times Leader file

<p>A locomotive hauling rail box cars stopped outside the Central of New Jersey Train Station in 1965.</p>

A locomotive hauling rail box cars stopped outside the Central of New Jersey Train Station in 1965.

Following the 1972 Agnes flood, the Wilkes-Barre City Redevelopment Authority changed the landscape of downtown Wilkes-Barre by purchasing properties and demolishing buildings.

One such venture that gained momentum in the early to mid-1970s was called the Industrial Park Urban Renewal Project, which involved a planned roadway called Downtown Distributor.

We know it as Wilkes-Barre Boulevard.

For more than 100 years, a train yard with miles of rail tracks was located between South Pennsylvania Avenue and Baltimore Street and from Conyngham Avenue to Dana Street.

When passenger and freight train service ended leaving behind abandoned train stations, including the Central New Jersey that stands today, the area became ripe for redevelopment.

“The culmination of six years of negotiations between the authority and the Delaware and Hudson Railroad resulted in the purchase of D&H property and trackage totaling $2,275,000 million,” the Times Leader Evening News reported March 25, 1972.

The settlement paved way to redevelop the area into a planned industrial park and a roadway.

“It is hoped that construction will begin on the proposed Downtown Distributor, a four-lane highway designed to ease the movement of traffic in the downtown area,” the Evening News reported.

The abandoned Pennsylvania Railroad Station that stood at East Northampton Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue was the first structure to be razed as part of the project, the Times Leader reported March 25, 1973. A gasoline service station now stands at the site.

During 1977, the redevelopment authority awarded a series of contracts to begin removal of train rails, railroad ties and removal of raised track beds.

No. 1 Contracting Corp., of West Pittston was awarded a $175,000 contract to remove railroad trackage and coal between Scott and Hill streets, and Kaminski Brothers Inc., of Avoca, was awarded a $1.3 million contract to reconstruct Baltimore Street to make way for the Downtown Distributor.

The contract with Kaminski Brothers involved grading of the land, installation of storm and sanitary sewers, curbing and sidewalks and widening of existing intersections.

“Since practically all of the Downtown Distributor construction will be within the former railroad yards which traverse the city north-south, there should be little inconvenience to the traveling public when the roadway is being erected,” the Times Leader reported Jan. 12, 1978.

At the same time construction began, efforts were underway to renovate the Central New Jersey Train Station into a restaurant.

The first section of Wilkes-Barre Boulevard between Hill and East Northampton streets opened July 25, 1978, with other sections to Scott Street opening later that year.

Wilkes-Barre City Council changed the name of Downtown Distributor to Wilkes-Barre Boulevard by an official vote in March 1979.

When Wilkes-Barre Boulevard opened, plans to extend the roadway to Conyngham Avenue began in 1980 with contracts awarded to remove rails, ties and track beds.

Initially, two lanes stretched to Conyngham Avenue.

Officials quickly realized the narrow roadway was too small to handle heavier traffic.

It wouldn’t be for another 17 years when Wilkes-Barre Boulevard was widened to four-lanes between Scott Street to the North Cross Valley Expressway at a cost of $1.2 million in 1997, the Times Leader reported Aug. 19, 1997.