Tuesday evening the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation held an open house at Stroudsburg High School to introduce the public to the preliminary design phase of a planned major improvement project for Interstate 80 in Monroe County.

The project will include the sections of the road that encompass exits 303, 304, 305, 306 and 307. There are three main reasons for the project, according to Assistant District Executive for Design Chris Kufro.

“These improvements are needed mainly to address the deterioration of the existing roadway, improving safety and traffic flow through the region,” Kufro said. “This area has been identified as having the highest traffic volume and a very high level of traffic accidents.”

Kufro said that traffic studies were conducted during high-volume travel, particularly on a Friday during the summer months.

“During rush hour on a summer Friday, the volume was as high as 70,000 vehicles in one day,” Kufro said. “That could easily increase to over 130,000 in 20 to 30 years.”

A mobility study conducted by PennDOT found that nearly 50 percent of all traffic in the 3.45-mile segment being redesigned enters and exits between exits 304 and 307.

Kufro said that the preliminary design takes into account the need to maintain two lanes of traffic throughout the construction phase. To make this happen, some sections of the roads will be widened to three lanes, on and off ramps will be reconfigured and shoulders will be widened.

Stroudsburg Mayor Tarah Probst has been involved with the PennDOT Project Action Committee and isn’t convinced that the preliminary design is good for the borough.

“This is the biggest unsafe 80 they could design,” Probst said. “Three lanes in each direction is more like 10, with six travel lanes, long on and off ramps and 12-foot-wide shoulders on each side.”

“They are taking properties and businesses. And the ones that are left, no one will be able to get to because of the gridlock on the streets through town.”

Probst says that on occasion there is gridlock in town, especially on Sunday evenings during the summer when visitors are heading home to New Jersey and New York, but she expects it to get much worse with drivers avoiding I-80.

“We will have gridlock on Main and Sarah streets as well as 611, 191 and 209. It is impossible to get an ambulance or firetruck through town when there is gridlock.”

Probst suggested that rather than spend the $500 million proposed to widen the corridor, that PennDOT instead make the safety and structural repairs needed to I-80, repair the bridge and on ramps, and make repairs to Route 611 and invest some of the money in getting the commuter railroad going again.

Probst believes that her approach would be better for the economy, the environment and would ultimately be safer as well.

Kufro said that in his experience, when PennDOT makes these kinds of improvements to interstates that local economies actually improve with it being easier for visitors to the area to get on and off the interstate to shop and visit local establishments.

Monroe County Commissioners John Moyer, Charles Garris and John Christy all attended the session.

“It was a vociferous crowd to say the least,” Moyer said. “The crowd shared their comments as many of them have been since the project was proposed a number of years ago.

“What I can say is that PennDOT has been doing a lot of work on this redesign and the current preliminary design takes a lot less land and proposes fewer retention basins than what was proposed originally.”

Moyer said PennDOT was not prepared to say how much private property would be taken for the project, but that it was clear to him that is was significantly less than the previous designs.

“What might not have come across is that this is a fait accompli,” Moyer said. “This is going to happen and what we all have to do is all come together and make this work.”

Kufro said the project is only in the preliminary design phase and that the next phase will take a hard look at the environmental impacts of the project. The project is expected to cost around $500 million, and actual construction would not begin until 2023, which is about when construction on exit 308 is expected to be completed.

Kufro added that this is only part of the I-80 corridor redesign which will eventually include the entire section of I-80, East and West from I-380 to the Delaware Water Gap.

Kufro said that PennDOT will continue to work with the Project Action Committee to try to bring everybody together.

“We want to come to a consensus of what needs to be done,” Kufro said. “To meet the needs of all of the stakeholders.”

For more information, see www.i80project.com.