SCRANTON — Lackawanna County commissioners recently awarded a roughly $700,000 contract for a paving project in Archbald and Jermyn.
It entails the resurfacing of Main Street in Archbald from its intersection with Gilmartin Street north into Jermyn, where Main Street becomes Washington Avenue. The paving of Washington Avenue will continue from that point to where Washington meets Eynon Jermyn Road.
Commissioners voted unanimously earlier this month to award a $705,372 contract for the project to Pennsy Supply Inc., which submitted the lowest of six viable bids the county received for the work. Officials tentatively anticipate a May 1 start date for the project they hope to have completed before July 4, county Roads and Bridges Director Larry Lukasik said.
“We’re only at the point now where we’re going to give (Pennsy) the notice of the award,” Lukasik said Thursday. “Then we’ve got to get the signed contract, then we have a notice to proceed, then they have submittals to put in so … hopefully we’re anticipating a May 1 start out there.”
Describing the project as a “basic mill-and-fill,” Lukasik said he doesn’t expect it to take more than two months.
“The goal is to mill and overlay the roadway, while performing minimal base repair,” officials noted in a cover sheet accompanying recent legislation authorizing the Pennsy contract. “The resurfacing project will extend the life of the roadway base, which costs significantly more to replace than the roadway surface.”
The pending paving work complements a similar project commissioners approved last year to resurface Main Street from its intersection with Keystone Avenue in Blakely to its intersection with Kennedy Drive in Archbald, a project that includes the replacement of a retaining wall in the area of the Hill Street intersection in Blakely. Pennsy was also the low bidder and chosen contractor for that roughly $1.3 million improvement project that began in 2025 and will wrap up this year.
Work on remaining elements of that project should resume in the spring, Lukasik said.
The county also completed last year a major Montage Mountain paving project covering the entirety of Montage Mountain Road, Preate Drive and Lakeview Commons, as well as the portion of Glenmaura National Boulevard that loops from the railroad crossing near PNC Field through the area of the Shoppes at Montage and intersects back with Montage Mountain Road near the Glenmaura Sales Center.
Commissioners awarded Pennsy a $3.6 million contract for the Montage Mountain paving in early February 2025.
Failure to complete the planned improvements to Main Street and Washington Avenue in Archbald and Jermyn, respectively, would eventually require “more expensive base repairs” as the condition of road worsens, the legislative cover sheet notes.
A vehicle passes by homes on N. Main St. in Archbald Friday, February 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A vehicle turns onto the Gilmartin St. Bridge from N. Main St. in Archbald Friday, February 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
A portion of N. Main St. in Archbald Friday, February 13, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
This map, shared at a recent Lackawanna County commissioners meeting, shows the area targeted for a pending paving project in Archbald and Jermyn. (SCREENSHOT VIA ECTV)