Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — Improving pedestrian and vehicular safety, adding street and walkway lighting, and connecting key street corridors of the city are the keys to a $2.5 million PennDOT/Wilkes University streetscape project.
Michael Wood, assistant to the president/external affairs at Wilkes, and Charlie Cary, executive director/facilities at the university, detailed the project at Friday’s meeting of the Downtown Wilkes-Barre Business Association at the Wilkes-Barre Family YMCA.
Work on the project is set to begin on May 20 — the week after Wilkes’ commencement — and be completed by Aug. 15. Wood and Cary said the project will cause some disruption to traffic, but they said the plan is to minimize those disruptions.
Wilkes University President Patrick Leahy said the project is “another outstanding example” of a public-private partnership.
“Thanks to federal transportation funds, combined with university dollars, we will greatly improve the look and safety of our campus and the surrounding neighborhood, benefiting our students, faculty and staff and the people who live and work in downtown Wilkes-Barre,” Leahy said.
Wood said much of the project is funded by the Transportation Alternatives Program administered by PennDOT. Wilkes is contributing $500,000 to address costs related to engineering and design.
“Some 70 percent of this project is not even on Wilkes University property,” Wood said. “We are doing this because we want to incentivize new development in the second block of South Main Street. And we think it’s the right thing to do.”
Cary said the project will be done incrementally to minimize traffic disruption on busy downtown streets.
What it includes
The pedestrian improvement project is a continuation of the streetscape improvements Wilkes has made in the blocks surrounding its campus, specifically South Franklin Street. This next phase includes improvements to:
• South Main Street from Northampton Street to South Street.
• West South Street from South Franklin Street to South Main Street.
• South Franklin Street from Ross Street to West South Street (a pedestrian crosswalk with crossing signals will be installed in front of the Arnaud C. Marts Center).
“There will be brighter lighting, trees planted and new sidewalks,” Cary said. “And pedestrian and vehicular safety will be greatly improved.”