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Repairs to Damaged Coxton Road Underway

DURYEA, Pa. — Repairs started Tuesday on a well-traveled road that runs through Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties. All of this summer’s heavy rainfall...

DURYEA, Pa. -- Repairs started Tuesday on a well-traveled road that runs through Luzerne and Lackawanna Counties.

All of this summer's heavy rainfall damaged Coxton Road, closing it indefinitely.

If you've driven on Coxton Road recently, you know it needs a lot of work.

PennDOT shut down the road last week because of extensive damage to it.

People who live along the road say it is about time something is done.

"I feel pretty good about it because they're going to fix it the right way this time, I guess. This makes the 18th time or 19th time this year it flooded out," Ron Kresge said.

PennDOT plans to repair portions of the road damaged by heavy rainfall from over the summer.

"This is very good news for the residents who live both on the Lackawanna county side and the Dupont, Pittston area because this is a main thoroughfare between lower Lackawanna County and that portion of Luzerne County," said PennDOT official James May.

A lot of the concerns about Coxton Road have been about a section where water comes over the road when it rains really hard, but PennDOT's spokesperson says there are multiple stages to this project.

"While we have the road closed, crews are down here and they're filling a lot of the potholes and then they're going to come in and do some of the resurfacing of this road before we do the major repairs and open this road up," said May.

PennDOT will also be removing rocks that have fallen off the cliff that runs along the road. Many of the rocks have fallen and are dangerous to drivers. Newswatch 16 even found some that are barely hanging on to the cliff.

"It's possible because them rocks can come down. There are big rocks up there all the way," Kresge said.

that's why PennDOT is still warning people to pay attention to the "road closed" signs.

There are still people who are driving around them.

"Now this is an active work zone. There are crews who are out here working and if you're driving through here, you're driving through an active work zone and you're putting lives in danger by doing so," May added.

May says there is no set date for the project to be completed. He is hoping, if the weather cooperates, that it will be done in the next few weeks.

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