A deteriorated road in Mountain Top may be redone using Luzerne County’s American Rescue Plan funds.
Fairview Township resident Scott Bussinger had appeared before council in March to highlight the poor condition of county-owned Kirby Avenue, saying it “may be the poster child” of road deterioration in the county. The road is beyond patching and in need of rebuilding, he had said.
Resurfacing Kirby Avenue would cost $600,000, the administration said. The project would involve 1.2 miles, from the avenue’s intersections with Route 309 and Route 437.
“The roadway is in poor condition, and over the last two seasons, we have fielded more than the usual road complaints,” the road and bridge department agenda submission said.
County Interim Operational Services Division Head Lawrence Plesh said he was asked to submit options to complete repairs with American Rescue funding to Luzerne County Council, and Kirby Avenue was among those on his top-priority list.
The county has $97 million in federal American Rescue Plan funding that has not been earmarked, although the administration does not believe most can be used for road and bridge repairs.
If council wants to proceed with the Kirby Avenue allocation, it would be covered by a portion of the American Rescue funding known as “lost revenue” that is more discretionary, said County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo.
American Rescue funds may be used for government services in the dollar amount of revenue lost from 2019 to 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, officials have said.
Crocamo said approximately $4.5 million of $8.9 million is still available in the “lost revenue” category for council to allocate.
Outside this category, the federal government may not allow the American Rescue funding to be used for road rehabilitation, Crocamo said. The only confirmed possibility would be projects to address drainage issues that are damaging a specific section of a road, she said.
“We never received a clear answer on whether we can pave the rest of a road or only the section involved in a drainage project,” Crocamo said.
Plesh said some patching was recently completed on Kirby Avenue, but the proposed project would refurbish the roadway “back up to a good rating.”
Residents have increasingly called on county officials to address road repairs.
The county has approximately 120 miles of roads and 300 bridges scattered within its boundaries, many inherited from municipalities during the Great Depression, officials said. It relies heavily on state funding and grants to pay for most reconstruction and repairs.
Crocamo has estimated $50 million would be needed to address all deteriorating county-owned roads. The administration is still awaiting word on what federal infrastructure funding will be allocated for county projects, she said.
A map and cost estimate of the Kirby Avenue project are posted as an attachment to council’s work session agenda at luzernecounty.org.
