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Scranton Intersection Getting Long-Awaited Traffic Signal

SCRANTON — Folks in one neighborhood in the Electric City are getting an early Christmas present that they said is long overdue. The intersection of Meado...

SCRANTON -- Folks in one neighborhood in the Electric City are getting an early Christmas present that they said is long overdue.

The intersection of Meadow Avenue and River Street in Scranton near East Mountain sees some 13,000 drivers each day, according to PennDOT. However, many people still say they don't really know what to do when they get there.

"It's hectic, I mean it's a crap-shoot all the time. You're taking your life in your own hands, you have traffic going this way and traffic going the other way, and you never know how you're going to get out of here," said Joseph Arnold of Scranton.

The intersection connects Scranton's south side to Interstate-81 and is a main route leading to the East Mountain section of the city. Newswatch 16 talked to drivers who travel there everyday. They said with all the traffic a two-way stop doesn't cut it anymore.

PennDOT's putting in a traffic signal for drivers on both Meadow Avenue and River Street.

"It'll help because you know what you're going to be doing, you're not guessing all the time. It's a guessing game right now," added Arnold.

The lights on Meadow Avenue and River Street are part of a bigger PennDOT project to replace traffic signals all over the city. Many of them aren't operating yet while crews are still working. However, PennDOT officials said the new lights should be on by the end of the year.

"This is an intersection that has about 13,000 motorists that go through it everyday, so it's a very busy signal, and it's one that people have been asking for a while because of the amount of traffic that goes through there," said James May, a PennDOT spokesperson.

"It gets populated up here, and the traffic, there's more traffic. We need it," said Joan Wolf of Scranton.

Wolf lives near River Street, and she said she and her neighbors have petitioned for a traffic signal in the past, so the work is an early Christmas present that will make her neighborhood safer.

"We're very happy, I'm not the only one, I think all of the residents up here are very happy," added Wolf.

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