In a switch of plans, Scranton will replace the Myrtle Street Bridge over Roaring Brook before replacing the nearby, older Ash Street Bridge over the same creek, a city official said Monday.
The Myrtle Street Bridge is in worse condition and its replacement should occur this year, while the Ash Street Bridge replacement probably won’t happen for a few years, city Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said.
The Ash St. Bridge crosses over Roaring Brook in East Scranton Monday, March 2, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
In recent years, the city was planning to replace the Ash Street Bridge first and use the nearby Myrtle Street as the detour, according to Cipriani. But the Myrtle Street Bridge — which has required increasingly severe weight restrictions over the past decade or longer, and has been reduced to one lane of traffic — would not be able to handle the extra volume of detour traffic.
So, the state Department of Transportation advised the city to flip the projects and replace the Myrtle Street Bridge first, Cipriani said. Once a new Myrtle Street Bridge is built, Myrtle Street could then be used as the detour for the Ash Street Bridge replacement project.
Both bridges, which are only several hundred feet apart, are key spans for the city’s East Scranton and Bunker Hill neighborhoods. Ash and Myrtle streets are connected by Richter Avenue in the area of Darcy Park, across from the East Scranton Little League complex.
According to archives of The Times-Tribune:
• Myrtle Street Bridge is 106 feet long; built in 1979. In 2016, it had a weight limit of 29 tons, or 35 tons for combinations or twin trailers. By 2022, the weight limit was was 22 tons, and 26 tons for combinations. The weight limit currently is 4 tons, with no combinations. Traffic over the two-lane bridge has remained reduced to one lane in recent years.
• Ash Street Bridge is 68 feet long; built in 1958. In 2016, it had a weight limit of 15 tons. In late 2023, the weight limit of this two-lane bridge was 10 tons.
• In December, the city got a $1.4 million state “multimodal” grant for replacement of the Ash Street Bridge, according to separate announcements at that time from Gov. Josh Shapiro and state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, D-114, Waverly Twp. Previously, the city in 2019 got a $1.1 million multimodal grant for the Ash Street Bridge project.
So, the city had $2.5 million for the Ash Street Bridge project, Cipriani said. But PennDOT’s ongoing inspections of the bridges resulted in a lowering of the weight limit on the Myrtle Street Bridge to only 4 tons, thus making it not suitable as a detour route.
“In an evaluation of the Myrtle Street Bridge, they lowered the weight limit and that meant it was not a viable detour,” Cipriani said. “PennDOT said we should switch the order of operations, so the Myrtle Street Bridge would get done first.”
Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti’s administration has sent resolutions to Scranton City Council regarding the two bridge projects.
A resolution unanimously introduced by council Feb. 24 would authorize the city to apply for a $3 million state multimodal grant for the Ash Street Bridge replacement project.
That’s because the $2.5 million in grants previously earmarked for the Ash Street Bridge project now would get shifted to the Myrtle Street Bridge project. The administration sent a separate resolution to council for introduction this Tuesday to move the prior two grants totaling $2.5 million to the Myrtle Street Bridge replacement project. Total cost estimates for each project are undetermined, Cipriani said.
Both resolutions are on council’s agenda for its meeting Tuesday at City Hall at 6:30 p.m.
The Myrtle Street bridge near the intersection of Richter Avenue in Scranton is seen on Monday. March, 2, 2026. The bridge is currently down to one lane. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
The Myrtle Street bridge near the intersection of Richter Avenue in Scranton is seen on Monday. March, 2, 2026. The bridge is currently down to one lane. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
The Myrtle Street bridge near the intersection of Richter Avenue in Scranton is seen on Monday. March, 2, 2026. The bridge is currently down to one lane. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)
The Myrtle Street Bridge over Roaring Brook in the 1900 block of Myrtle Street in Scranton was posted with a 29-ton-weight limit, or 35-ton combination, in this photo from Feb. 9, 2016. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)
The Myrtle Street Bridge at Richter Avenue in East Scranton was seen barricaded to traffic in this photo on Sept. 2, 2022. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)
The Ash Street Bridge in East Scranton was posted with a 10-ton weight limit in November of 2023, as seen in this Google Street View image. (IMAGE COPY / GOOGLE STREET VIEW)
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The Myrtle Street bridge near the intersection of Richter Avenue in Scranton is seen on Monday. March, 2, 2026. The bridge is currently down to one lane. (CHAD SEBRING/STAFF PHOTO)