WILKES-BARRE – The stone wall channeling Laurel Run along Kresge Street does not appear to be affected by a small settlement in the ground, a city official said on Tuesday.
A contractor dumped stones on Monday in the section where the soil came off the wall, said Butch Frati, Wilkes-Barre’s deputy city administrator and director of operations.
“It looks like nothing with the wall,†Frati said.
Concrete barriers remained in place on the roadway between Trethaway and Govier streets in the Parsons area of ​​the city.
The contractor made a few test holes and took soil samples and Frati said he was waiting for test results. He did not have the cost of the work.
The ground settling may have taken place last week, Frati said. The city has decided to err on the side of caution in carrying out the work, he added.
“This is something at the time we considered an emergency,†Frati said.
The stone wall, built by the Works Progress Administration established in the 1930s as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal program, was similar to the one that collapsed in Solomon Creek in December 2016.
Nearly four years later, the city marked the completion of a project estimated at $ 5.2 million for the construction of a new reinforced concrete wall between South Franklin and Vulcan streets and the construction of a pumping station. The city used more than $ 4 million from a bond issue and state disaster recovery funds to finance the Solomon Creek project.
Contact Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.
