DICKSON CITY, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Work is being done on a certain creek that caused a lot of flooding and road damage in Dickson City back in 2021.
A heavy rainstorm caused Price Creek, which runs underground in Dickson City, to flood and spew water from underneath the road on Dundaff Street.
Borough officials hope this new project will prevent a disaster like that from ever happening again.
In May 2021, a powerful storm sent water and debris rushing down Price Creek, ultimately closing the road for six months.
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"Three years ago, we had a 100-year rainstorm. We actually had two of them in three years, what it did was overwhelmed our box culvert that goes down Dundaff Street and it got filled with debris and it caused flooding," said Dickson City Borough Manager Cesare Forconi.
Now with the help of ARPA funds, crews are stabilizing Price Creek by placing rip rap, which is a layer of big rocks on the creek banks to help slow down the water and stop the banks from eroding.
Crews are also reinforcing a stilling basin, a steel mesh system that catches debris.
"Part of this project is to increase that area, to catch debris if we have a storm again like that, and so it's going to have a lot more capacity in order to not allow debris to get into the box culvert itself," Forconi explained.
Borough officials are confident these measures will protect Dundaff Street and the surrounding community from future floods
"We're going to be better prepared and be able to handle it, the infrastructure through town you know that was put in in the 70s, so they didn't have rainstorms like we have today, this should be able to give us a lot more, easier because we won't have to be as concerned when we do get a rainstorm that the debris is going to get into the culvert itself," Forconi added.
Forconi says the project should wrap up by the end of November this year.
