Wyoming Valley Levee path will be closed to public at Edwardsville rail crossing

A small section of the popular recreational trail atop the Wyoming Valley Levee in Edwardsville will soon be off-limits because it is a Norfolk Southern train crossing, the Luzerne County Flood Protection advised the public.

“This is a big change from what the public has been experiencing in the past, and the authority wishes to start the education process with the public,” said Christopher Belleman, executive director of the authority that oversees the levee.

The blockage stems from an agreement the authority needed with Norfolk Southern to modify the section where railroad tracks cut through the levee to allow an easy-to-assemble, stop-log closure during Susquehanna River flooding, Belleman said.

This project will eliminate the need for the authority to maneuver a truck nearby to deliver approximately 1,600 sandbags when the Susquehanna rises, he said. In the record 2011 flood, students and other volunteers had to race to position the sandbags about 3 feet high along the 45-foot-wide rail track depression so the rising river could not spill through, he has said.

In the authority’s negotiations to secure a construction agreement, Norfolk Southern was “obligated to impose restrictions on pedestrian traffic to best minimize pedestrian and train interactions at this location,” Belleman said.

As part of the final construction, chain-link swing gates will be installed atop the levee road approximately 60 feet from the center of the rails, on both sides of the tracks, he said.

The gates will be locked and only accessible to authority vehicles and equipment.

In the area where the train tracks intersect the levee, the existing turf on the levee embankments will be removed and replaced by an armor of stones a foot or two in diameter, Belleman said.

“Post-construction, the new layout will greatly discourage the public from crossing the Norfolk Southern rail tracks. That practice has always been unsafe,” Belleman said.

Barricades and signs also will be erected to block the public from entering the work zone during construction, which is expected to begin the middle of May, he said.

The work site is located near the Wilkes University women’s softball field and Kirby Park tennis courts and is heavily used for walking, running and cycling, he said.

While the change will force levee path visitors to turn around when they reach that section, Belleman said the levee’s primary purpose is flood control.

“It is important to note that these are flood control lands and not a park,” Belleman said. “The authority is executing this project to improve our flood-fighting efficiency and to better protect the residents of Edwardsville and Kingston,” he said.

The project also will address an opening on the opposite end of the rail Black Diamond Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, where the levee gap is reached by a steep road off the intersection of Pickering Street and Riverside Drive, Belleman has said. In 2011, people had to line up and pass sandbags weighing about 50 pounds each up that hill to fill in the opening, he said.

The stop-log system of aluminum beams can be quickly set up by a two-person crew when needed, he has said.