Nearly $3 million in federal funds earmarked for a downtown Scranton transit hub is being reconsidered by the U.S. Department of Transportation after the grant for the long-stalled project was unused for more than a decade.
The County of Lackawanna Transit System learned last week that $2.9 million in undistributed federal funds earmarked for the intermodal transportation center by Congress between 1998 and 2000 would no longer be dedicated to the project because the money had not been spent.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey said Friday that federal transportation Secretary Ray LaHood agreed to send a team to Scranton to assess the project and potentially reconsider the fate of the funds after he spoke with Mr. Casey on Thursday.
"COLTS provides an important service to residents in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including to the many older citizens who depend on these buses for everyday activities like doctor's appointments and groceries," Mr. Casey, a Democrat, said. "The Department of Transportation should recognize the positive steps that COLTS has taken to build the Intermodal Transportation Center and reverse their misguided decision to pull resources from the project."
The intermodal center was first proposed in the late 1990s as a station for county and commercial buses, and passenger rail service if it ever materializes, in the 100 block of Lackawanna Avenue on the site of a parking lot for the State Office Building.
It was plagued by delays, first by a state bill necessary to transfer the state-owned lot to COLTS, then when the Federal Transit Administration in 2008 ordered COLTS to repay $907,000 for violating federal law by failing to seek competitive bids for the design work for the station.
COLTS has since had to reinvent much of the project. It received new architecture and engineering bids, selected a new firm, paid back the federal funds, started an environmental review and finished about a quarter of the new preliminary design work, COLTS Executive Director Robert Fiume said.
"We're moving full speed ahead," he said, adding that groundbreaking for the project is tentatively scheduled for the spring.
"We've worked with the Federal Transit Administration to get all those past wrongs corrected," he said. "It's been a total turnaround."
COLTS began withdrawing money from the earmark for the new design work several weeks ago, he said.
The federal money is crucial to the estimated $12 million project. Mr. Fiume said he is convinced the Transportation Department will recognize the project's progress if it reassesses it.
"We need this $3 million," Mr. Fiume said.
The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
In a letter to Mr. LaHood on Friday, Mr. Casey said it would be insufficient to allocate money from the county's federal formula grants to try to replace the earmarked funds.
"Especially in the midst of this fragile economic climate, COLTS and its riders cannot afford to lose $2.9 million," he wrote.
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com