With a $1.5 million grant, the Rail-Trail Council of NEPA will upgrade four miles of trail in Susquehanna County.
The Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority (LHVA) will use its $1.35 million state grant to bridge a North Scranton neighborhood with its 70-mile Heritage Trail and create future trail opportunities.
And the Junction Section of Pittston will be upgraded with the city's $1.7 million grant to help spur further economic development in the Luzerne County muncipalitity.
Thirteen communities, organizations and municipalities in Northeast and Northcentral Pennsylvania were awarded $16.6 million in funding through the state Department of Transportation’s 2025 Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside (TASA) program, which is funded through the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Surface Block Grant Program.
The money is for projects and activities defined as transportation alternatives, according to PennDOT. In total, the agency awarded $74 million to 72 projects in 38 counties across the state for projects to improve community resources and public accessibility around the state.
The 2025 application round opened July 14, and final applications were due Oct. 31.
Closing trail gaps in Susquehanna County
The Rail-Trail Council maintains the 38-mile D&H Trail which runs through Susquehanna County and into Lackawanna County, where it meets with the Heritage Trail.
Four-miles from Main Street in Thompson to Sartell Road in Ararat Twp. are currently a gravelly abandoned railroad bed that was cleared of thick brush. That area of the trail is alongside a mountain, council executive director Lynn Conrad said.
A 500-foot long railroad bridge used to run across a ravine, so the trail features switchbacks, which are paths that curve back and forth up a mountainside.
“This project will include the northern half of the switchback, so it will improve the surface of the switchback, and it will be ADA-accessible,” she said.
The council also will use the grant to create drainage for the runoff from the mountain. The gravel will also be smoothed out.
"That area is very scenic … it's not just a straight, old flat railbed, it's a little more interesting," she said.
The council also will add a trailhead in Starrucca, where trail users can park and get information about the trail.
Right now, 3.5 miles of the trail are also under construction and another 3 miles are out to bid for a project.
Conrad said once all three projects are complete, there will only be one final mile to upgrade on the trail.
"That northern part of the trail that has all these holes in it [that] will now be all put back together,” she said.
Bridging North Scranton and beyond
An old mining bridge stops in North Scranton just alongside the 70-mile Heritage Trail. The 317-foot historic Marvine steel truss bridge was built in the early 1900s, said Owen Worozbyt, Director of Operations at LHVA, which maintains the trail.
The authority will use the $1.35 million grant to rehabilitate and repurpose the bridge into a pedestrian trestle to connect the Marvine Dutch Gap section of the city with the trail.
The project is significant, Worozbyt said. The bridge project begins the authority’s larger plans, which includes a trail alongside Leggets Creek, a tributary of the Lackawanna River.
“This would be the impetus of creating the additional spur trails … so that you'll be able to access more and more neighborhoods, and more people will have access to recreational opportunities,” he said.
LHVA has an easement on Toyota of Scranton’s property to access the trail from the bridge once complete. An old railroad bridge runs parallel to the mining bridge, which Worozbyt said will eventually be removed.
Junction upgrades
Several years ago the Reading & Northern Railroad organized a train trip to Pittston for the city’s annual Tomato Festival.
Some riders chose to walk about a mile from the Pittston train station to the festival in the central business district.
“Problem with that walk is … there are either no ... sidewalks or horrible sidewalk conditions,” Pittston Mayor Mike Lombardo said.
The city will apply its $1.7 million grant to improve the area from the Fort Jenkins Bridge to the area around the train station. The neighborhood is called the Junction Section. Handicap accessibility will be improved and period lighting will be added, Lombardo said. Pittston also will partner with PennDOT to straighten out a sharp curve in Main Street.
Pittston’s downtown revitalization started in the central business district then moved south. Now, Lombardo said they are focusing on the northern end of the city.
He said that area is underutilized.
"Back in the day it was very productive. There were restaurants, there were bars, there were a couple antique places, you know, when the railroad industry was popping,” Lombardo said. “So this will be a rebirth of that section of the city.”
He hopes the grant and other funds to improve the area will create another wave of economic opportunity in Pittston. Lombardo also hopes that work extends into Pittston's neighboring boroughs, including Duryea.
"We need to start blurring those municipal lines. It just creates more opportunities for all of us, more walkability. It also adds to the trail system," he said.
OTHER 2025 TASA grants include:
NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY
- Shamokin: $1.5 million for phase 3 of the Independence Street Streetscape. This project will improve safety and accessibility from 9th to Market Street with ADA sidewalks, ramps, crosswalks and lighting.
LACKAWANNA COUNTY
- Old Forge School District: $1 million to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility at the Old Forge K-12 campus by installing ADA-compliant sidewalks, curb ramps and lighting along West Grace, Railroad, Marion, and Josephine Streets. The project will include stormwater management, crosswalks and traffic calming to create a safer walking environment for students and the community.
LUZERNE COUNTY
- White Haven Borough: $650,000 to close existing trail gap, linking trail users to local businesses and providing a safe, ADA accessible, well-lit and attractive downtown to support local businesses. Improvements will include pavement improvements, curb, sidewalk, concrete bump out, brick pavers and lighting.
LYCOMING COUNTY
- Lycoming County: $1.5 million to increase safe pedestrian and bike transportation and create new recreation opportunities. The approximately 1.7-mile extension of the Susquehanna River Walk will run from the existing River Walk at Maynard Street to the existing Lycoming Creek Bikeway near West 3rd Street. Project elements include fencing, bollards, a pedestrian bridge, railroad crossing infrastructure, ADA ramps, raised walkways, signage, benches and landscaping.
SCHUYLKILL COUNTY
- Schuylkill County: $1.38 million to construct a trail bridge, trailhead parking area and 0.5 miles of multi-use, non-motorized trail north of the historic Mount Carbon Bowstring Truss at Schuylkill River Trail (SRT) Mill Creek. It will expand the nationally significant Schuylkill River Trail and provide safe, alternative transportation through the Route 61 corridor between St. Clair and Frackville Boroughs.
SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY
- Lanesboro Borough: $1.5 million to construct concrete curb and sidewalk along the east side of Route 171 from the Susquehanna Community School District's High School entrance northward approximately 1,100-feet to the intersection of State Route 1009. The sidewalks and curbs will meet current ADA standards to ensure a safe, accessible walking corridor for all students, encouraging walking and biking as viable, active transportation options, promoting health and reducing traffic congestion.
TIOGA COUNTY
- Westfield Borough: $1.08 million to construct new sidewalks along the southern side of Main Street from Riverside Park to the eastern borough border. The project includes new sidewalks, curbing, ramps and crosswalk access and will replace the currently dilapidated sidewalks.
UNION COUNTY
- East Buffalo Twp.: $1.09 million to support the design and construction of new curbs and sidewalks on the south side of West Market Street, and repair and connect sidewalks on the north side.
- Union County Trail Authority: $1.78 million to support the installation of a fully signalized mid-block crossing at Buffalo Valley Rail Trail with a raised pedestrian refuge constructed in the existing center-turn lane of U.S. Route 15. The fully integrated crossing signal system will include user activated pedestrian signals with push buttons located on both east and west sides of the crossing as well as in the center refuge. Bituminous paving from 10th Street to 8th Street will complete the project.
WAYNE COUNTY
- Honesdale: $600,079 to remove and reconstruct the deteriorated concrete stairways linking Riverside Drive, Cottage Street and Cliff Street. The project will replace unsafe steps with new reinforced concrete stairs and full-length railings, restoring a vital pedestrian connection in the borough's hillside network.
