Scranton plans two more stormwater projects in flood-prone Keyser Valley

Scranton plans two more stormwater-management upgrade projects in the flood-prone Keyser Valley.

The projects, which have bid-submission deadlines of Monday at 10 and 11 a.m., respectively, aim to better handle stormwater flow in the Keyser Creek watershed area, as follows:

• Improve existing stormwater systems in an area from a new Keyser Creek outfall to an old “dry dam” location. The dry-dam wooded area is between Briggs Street/Horatio Avenue area and Newton Road. A dry dam temporarily holds and slowly releases runoff during times of heavy rain. The city is looking to acquire this dry dam property through eminent domain, city Business Administrator Eileen Cipriani said.

• Create a “regional stormwater detention basin” on part of West Mountain between Newton Road and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The city already recently acquired through eminent domain this land for a detention basin.

The city will use federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to fund these two projects.

“We have been working for years to improve the overall stormwater management systems in Keyser Valley,” Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti said in a recent announcement. “These contracts represent our final ARPA funded projects, and this important work should help protect this neighborhood for generations to come.”

The city had committed nearly $23 million of its $68.7 million in federal ARPA funds, as well as other city and grant funds, to various stormwater management projects. Some of those projects were in the Keyser Valley area, which got swamped during the severe flash flooding of Sept. 9, 2023, and had dozens of homes damaged and some rendered uninhabitable.

Meanwhile, other ARPA-funded stormwater projects underway in the Keyser Valley area include:

• Lindy Creek debris removal on basins along Frink Street, the Lindy Creek U-channel near South Dewey Avenue, and the confluence of Lindy and Keyser creeks.

• Keyser Valley stormwater cleanouts of sediment, debris and obstructions in more than 2,300 linear feet of storm pipes, to restore them to their full conveyance capacity.

• Fawnwood Heights Phase 1 Stormwater Improvements on the northeast corner of this residential development to improve stormwater conveyance and implement erosion control measures.

• Small stormwater conveyance system repairs and upgrades at sites on Dewey Avenue to convey stormwater to the Merrifield Avenue pump station, on Fawnwood Drive to remove and replace storm pipes, and on Ridgeview Drive to install larger pipes to better control the flow of stormwater.