SCRANTON -- People in Scranton's hill section say they hardly had enough time to enjoy their newly paved street before it was ripped up again.
Two streets involved in a multi-million-dollar paving project last summer will need to be repaved again.
On Prescott Avenue, the memories are as fresh as the pavement. Back in September, this part of the hill section was paved for the first time in decades.
But now, UGI will be replacing a natural gas line for the next few days--good news, you would think. Residents were more disappointed that their road, which was just paved back in September, has been dug up again.
City officials are disappointed, too, but there's a fix already in the works.
Prescott Avenue and Pine Street were among streets paved in a $2 million city of Scranton paving project last summer, but the area where the streets intersect will have to be paved again.
"When I started to see the blue and green and orange and yellow paints going on I couldn't imagine what they were going to do," said Carol Wenzel of Scranton. "I never imagined they would dig down the whole center of the street for our entire block after having less than a year of smooth pavement."
"They're on Pine Street there. They're cutting it up pretty good, so I'm sure Prescott is going to be cut up pretty good there, too," said Don Fisch of Scranton.
Fisch and his neighbors wondered why their natural gas lines couldn't have been replaced at the same time the road was paved.
"It's not something they just come up and decide to do. If it was done before the street would still be in good shape, then," said Fisch.
Turns out, the city and UGI did coordinate schedules last year before the paving project began, but schedules change. The utility company has promised the city to repave Prescott and Pine when these crews are finished.
"The problem is sometimes between the time we send a bid out and we get the bid back and then we do the paving, they might have then decided to do work," said Scranton Mayor Bill Courtright. "So we do the best we could, but I do want to assure everybody, they are going to pave the street back curb to curb."
Officials with UGI tell Newswatch 16 that whenever they have to dig up a road that's been paved within five years they will do more than just patchwork and repave the road curb to curb.