For John Halliday, waiting has been the hardest part.
Halliday, owner of Halliday Trucking in Ashley, understands that his entire six-acre property will likely be acquired by the state for a $350 million reconstruction of Interstate 81 through Luzerne County as traffic on the highway continues to grow.
"The project itself I'm okay with," Halliday said after a public hearing Tuesday at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke. "We need the project, we really do. I own a trucking company, I understand."
Nearly two years after they first learned their properties potentially lay in the project's right-of-way, Halliday and nearly 20 other landowners still don't formally know how and when they'll be affected by the eminent domain land acquisition process.
For Halliday, that puts him and his business — including 40 employees — in a tense limbo as he looks to relocate.
"We're at the same spot we've been for the last year-and-a-half that we still don't have answers," Halliday said.
Project scope, delays
The project is expected to see 7.5 miles of I-81 reconstructed from Hanover Township to Wilkes-Barre Township in Luzerne County, roughly between the Nuangola and Highland Park Boulevard exits. PennDOT calls it the "Ashley to Arena" project, referencing its proximity to Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township.
Richard Roman, PennDOT's Dunmore-based District 4 executive, explained that the plan will see I-81 widened to three lanes in each direction through the heavily traveled corridor, which carries 32,000 vehicles each day, a third of which are trucks. Many of those trucks are traveling to and from the region's bustling warehouse and distribution sites.
"This is a great area, and it's a really an economic engine for Pennsylvania. But I think people have to also understand this is an economic engine for the country, the Mid Atlantic region ... and it's only going to grow," Roman said.
Widening the highway isn't the only objective. Officials say the work also will realign ramps to improve traffic flow, and replace pavement and bridges that were built in the 1960s and have reached the end of their useful life.
The work also will include construction of noise barriers, retaining walls and updated stormwater management features.
First presented to the public in July 2022, the basic outline of the project hasn't changed. The costs, financing and timetable have.
It was initially projected to cost between $200 million and $300 million with work set to begin in 2025. Now, the state is looking at a $350 million cost with work not starting until 2028.
The project was initially dubbed "Partnership 81," and was to be structured as a Public-Private Partnership, or P3, which would have drawn on private financing. Such projects were made possible under a 2012 law that was signed into law by then-Gov. Tom Corbett.
But the idea of using a P3 for the I-81 project was scrapped, and PennDOT opted to use a traditional "design-bid-build" contract structure instead, Roman explained.
"Things have changed in the Commonwealth with the approach to P3 issues," Roman said, including the ability to finance the project through the statewide Transportation Improvement Program. That led to the change in project structure, which led to delays with the funding process.
Roman acknowledged that working with private-sector funding would have led to faster construction, though he also said a 2025 start date "was still aggressive."
Next steps
The purpose of Tuesday's hearing — the fourth so far for the project — was to give the public an opportunity to comment on the project's initial environmental and engineering assessments before they are submitted to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) for approval.
Those who wish to review and comment on the environmental assessment can do so until April 12. They can learn more about it, and how to do comment, here.
Officials said right-of-way acquisition, in which PennDOT officials will begin to meet with affected property owners, is expected to begin as soon as the fall of 2025. Construction would begin in 2028. Officials also referred those who want to learn more about PennDOT's land acquisition process in general to this document.
"We're working diligently, as fast as we can," said Kevin James, a Harrisburg-based design consultant and project manager with Michael Baker International.
James said 16 to 20 properties are expected to be acquired for the project — three or four businesses, and the rest residential.
"Unfortunately, it is a bit of a cumbersome process sometimes to go through, but we want to make sure we get it right — and we're just not relocating people for the sake of relocating them, we want to make sure we're getting the right decision for the area and the community," James added.
An anxious wait
State Rep. Alec Ryncavage, R-Plymouth, who attended Tuesday's hearing, said he wants to ensure residents' concerns and frustrations are heard.
"I'm especially concerned with the delays and the bureaucracy involved," Ryncavage said. "We should be making sure that we are holding to our timelines and that we are we are increasing the level of communication and going beyond what is statutorily required."
Benjamin Koprowski lives on North Walnut Street in Wilkes-Barre Township. He said it appears his property will not be required for the project, but being adjacent to the highway he still has many concerns — about the reconstruction and the growing traffic.
"Ever since the the prices on the Turnpike went up, all the trucks (on I-81) have been even worse, and the traffic has been horrible," Koprowski said, adding that he hopes a sound barrier will be built as part of the project. "We haven't been able to use our pool in about two years because of the dust, and the vibrations from the road have gotten 10 times worse."
He's also not completely free of worries.
"I'm not going to lose my house, at least that's what they telling me now, but they keep on changing their mind about everything," Koprowski said. "And I'm really petrified that they might try to take my house that I worked so hard for."
While the wait may be stressful, PennDOT's Roman stressed that the project is moving ahead, and the land-acquisition process can't get underway until the environmental assessment is approved by the FHA.
"Once we have environmental clearance, then we're able to talk to property owners and businesses that are affected and be assured that what we're showing them, to a large extent, is not going to change," Roman said. "We don't want to go to people and tell them one thing. And then six months later, tell them something else. And I know that's frustrating, because as a property owner, you want to know that."
Design consultant James reiterated that the picture will become clearer after the FHA approves the environmental assessment.
"Once we get through the environmental clearance process here, which we anticipate later this summer, then we'll we'll be able to move forward with the final right-of-way plan and and get those answers to those people that are looking for them," he said.
For John Halliday, those answers can't come soon enough.
"It's just the uncertainty of when, the timeline," he said. "You can't really move when you don't know what they're going to do."
