Wyoming Valley Levee path will be closed to public at Edwardsville rail crossing | The Sunday Dispatch

A small part of the favored leisure path atop the Wyoming Valley Levee in Edwardsville will quickly be off-limits as a result of it’s a Norfolk Southern prepare crossing, the Luzerne County Flood Safety suggested the general public.

“It is a large change from what the general public has been experiencing up to now, and the authority needs to begin the training course of with the general public,” mentioned Christopher Belleman, govt director of the authority that oversees the levee.

The blockage stems from an settlement the authority wanted with Norfolk Southern to switch the part the place railroad tracks minimize via the levee to permit an easy-to-assemble, stop-log closure throughout Susquehanna River flooding, Belleman mentioned.

This mission will remove the necessity for the authority to maneuver a truck close by to ship roughly 1,600 sandbags when the Susquehanna rises, he mentioned. Within the document 2011 flood, college students and different volunteers needed to race to place the sandbags about 3 toes excessive alongside the 45-foot-wide rail monitor despair so the rising river couldn’t spill via, he has mentioned.

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Within the authority’s negotiations to safe a development settlement, Norfolk Southern was “obligated to impose restrictions on pedestrian visitors to greatest decrease pedestrian and prepare interactions at this location,” Belleman mentioned.

As a part of the ultimate development, chain-link swing gates will probably be put in atop the levee street roughly 60 toes from the middle of the rails, on either side of the tracks, he mentioned.

The gates will probably be locked and solely accessible to authority automobiles and gear.

Within the space the place the prepare tracks intersect the levee, the present turf on the levee embankments will probably be eliminated and changed by an armor of stones a foot or two in diameter, Belleman mentioned.

“Submit-construction, the brand new structure will drastically discourage the general public from crossing the Norfolk Southern rail tracks. That observe has all the time been unsafe,” Belleman mentioned.

Barricades and indicators additionally will probably be erected to dam the general public from getting into the work zone throughout development, which is anticipated to start the center of Might, he mentioned.

The work website is situated close to the Wilkes College girls’s softball subject and Kirby Park tennis courts and is closely used for strolling, operating and biking, he mentioned.

Whereas the change will power levee path guests to show round after they attain that part, Belleman mentioned the levee’s major objective is flood management.

“You will need to be aware that these are flood management lands and never a park,” Belleman mentioned. “The authority is executing this mission to enhance our flood-fighting effectivity and to higher shield the residents of Edwardsville and Kingston,” he mentioned.

The mission additionally will handle a gap on the other finish of the rail Black Diamond Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, the place the levee hole is reached by a steep street off the intersection of Pickering Avenue and Riverside Drive, Belleman has mentioned. In 2011, folks needed to line up and move sandbags weighing about 50 kilos every up that hill to fill within the opening, he mentioned.

The stop-log system of aluminum beams could be shortly arrange by a two-person crew when wanted, he has mentioned.