09-05-2025
Scranton completes 40 projects fixing damage from 2018 flooding
Scranton has completed 40 projects totaling $5.5 million that improved eight waterways and infrastructure damaged by severe flooding in August 2018, officials said.
Scranton city officials who spoke about the flood-restoration projects at a caucus of Scranton City Council on Tuesday included Fire Chief John Judge, city engineering project coordinator Morgan Fetsock, city Engineer Tom Reilly, who is president of Reilly Associates, and that firm's project manager, Joey Seidita, according to an Electric City Television video of the meeting posted on YouTube.
Some of the work that occurred in recent years involved stabilizing streambanks, removing sediment and repairing a large section of river levee wall and two bridges.
'This makes the city a safer place,' Judge said of completion of the numerous projects. 'This is critical for the city of Scranton and this should be applauded that this is now finished. It was a lot of hard work from a lot of partners here in the city.'
Impacted waterways included the Lackawanna River, Stafford Meadow Brook, Roaring Brook, Meadow Brook and the Lindy, Leggetts, Keyser and Leach creeks.
The overall project got delayed, first by the COVID-19 pandemic and then by the severe flash flooding event of September 2023. But the final work recently got completed and the city now is closing everything out for continued federal/state drawdowns of funding to cover costs, Judge told council.
The final project to get completed also was the single largest project undertaken — the replacement of 130 feet of the levee wall along the Lackawanna River, a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton, and which cost over $1 million, officials said. Reilly told how the levee wall was compromised by the 2018 storm because when it was constructed in the 1950s, the wall was butted up to a foundation of a former meatpacking plant that had been there. When the plant was removed and the earthen levee was added, the old basement wall was left in place as the flood wall, 'which was not at all constructed like a flood wall or a retaining wall,' Reilly said.
Other work completed included:
Removing 39,300 cubic yards of sediment and material from waterways, or 4,000 triaxle dump truck loads.
Stabilizing a total of a quarter-mile of streambanks with 6,270 cubic yards of riprap rock.
Repairing an over-150-year-old retaining wall at the historic Iron Furnaces.
Repairing a pair of bridges carrying Oak and Jackson streets over creeks.
Removing 102 trees.
Along with having to obtain dozens of private and commercial easements for work to occur, the overall project also involved permitting, oversight or involvement of various agencies and entities. Those included the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state Department of Environmental Protection, state Fish and Boat Commission, Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, Scranton Iron Furnaces and private and commercial property owners. Every project had to be reviewed by the Army Corps of Engineers, DEP and commission. Trout and bat restrictions also limited times when work could occur.
'Getting this project to the finish line was critical, but I think it also highlights some of the challenges we may have going forward,' Judge said. 'As we all know, there's a lot of changing going on in the federal government. We don't really know what's going to happen if we have another one of these events. We've seen disaster declarations recently turned down, not in our state, but I think it's important that we continue to maintain these waterways.'
Judge also thanked council for timely passages of pieces of legislation regarding contracting.
'When these events happen, timeliness is very important. Going forward, just keep it in the back of your mind, we need to move quickly,' Judge told council. 'To be able to move contracts through council quickly, to make sure we're getting contractors in place that can start and perform that work is crucial.'
He added, 'There was a lot we learned through this, and I think that we're better poised going forward to be able to deal with and mitigate these incidents.'
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Repairs of a levee wall along the Lackawanna River a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton are underway on Jan. 27, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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Repairs of a levee wall along the Lackawanna River a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton are underway on Jan. 27, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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Repairs of a levee wall along the Lackawanna River a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton are underway on Jan. 27, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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Repairs of a levee wall along the Lackawanna River a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton are underway on Feb. 27, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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Scranton city officials spoke about flood-repair projects at a caucus of Scranton City Council on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, from left, city engineering project coordinator Morgan Fetsock, Fire Chief John Judge, city Engineer Tom Reilly of Reilly Associates and that firm's project manager Joey Seidita. (IMAGE SCREEN GRAB: ELECTRIC CITY TELEVISION VIA YOUTUBE)
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Scranton City Council members during a caucus on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, from left, Tom Schuster, council President Gerald Smurl, Mark McAndrew and Jessica Rothchild. (IMAGE SCREEN GRAB: ELECTRIC CITY TELEVISION VIA YOUTUBE)
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Repairs of a levee wall along the Lackawanna River a short distance upstream of East Elm Street in South Scranton are underway on Jan. 27, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)
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