Sunday, April 29, 2018

Nanticoke construction project update

The Nanticoke construction project is nearly 2/3 done, at least according to the original timeline. At least, assuming this isn't just the first phase of something bigger. Which it's beginning to feel like it is. The latest update:

Update, April 29, 2018: Kosciuszko Street Turning Circle opens to Espy Street and up to Prospect Street May 1; Prospect Street Turning Circle construction to begin. 
From the Nanticoke City Fire Department:
As per Kriger Construction, May 1st is the date set for the opening of the Kosciuszko St. Roundabout to have access to Espy St. into the Hanover section of the City and local traffic to homes located between Espy St. & Prospect St. With this opening, the intersection of Prospect St & Middle Rd. will be CLOSED to all traffic as construction will begin on the new roundabout.

This is a pretty big deal to me, personally. The Espy Street turning circle was the first one built, and it was a huge improvement. No longer did people turning left from Espy Street onto Middle Road need to accelerate to 70 mph from a standing stop just to avoid getting t-boned by people speeding down from Kosciuszko Street. It also gave people an opportunity to get in some practice for the additional turning circles which were coming.

Unfortunately, the Kosciuszko Street turning circle construction project cut me off from using the Espy Street turning circle, and along with the construction on Middle Road heading east from Kosciuszko, cut me off from another alternate route to work. Middle Road is still closed heading east, but I expect that will be the next part to open. Even so, I think that option will no longer exist.

Here is what Route 29 looked like prior to the construction project:

Here's what it looks like in the most recent satellite image on Google Maps:


The new road - labeled "South Valley Parkway" - is visible as a road arcing above and parallel to Route 29, interconnecting with it in a strange double arc and featuring three nearly random turning circles.

The Parkway will eventually connect with South Main Street / Middle Road on the left
But the question is, to what end? This was a hell of a lot of effort and expense to route traffic around a few dozen homes on Middle Road. Are there additional businesses moving into the area now opened up by this road? Will those be more warehouse and call center jobs, paying just over minimum wage? Will there be an effort to attract technologically sophisticated jobs to retain some of the thousands of college graduates who move out of Northeastern Pennsylvania each year? Or will, perhaps, a new prison be built in the area, as some have suggested?

And what else is going on in the area? A great many trees have been cut down recently near the Sans Souci Parkway. Why? And why are trees being cleared along a ridge on Plymouth Mountain, as though a road is going to be put there? Someone knows the answers, to be sure. But I don't. Not yet.

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