'A devastating feeling': Route 611 closure impacts life in Delaware Water Gap, Portland

Part of Pennsylvania Route 611 will remain closed through the summer, a timeline that has leaders in Delaware Water Gap and Portland concerned about small businesses in the boroughs.

The road has been closed between Cherry Valley Road/Oak Street and Slateford Road since Dec. 6, 2022, when heavy rain caused a rock slide.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Tuesday that the closure will remain in place during the design and construction of “a project to remove additional loose rock and secure the rock face.” PennDOT’s estimated completion date is Aug. 31, 2023.

Related:Route 611 in Delaware Water Gap area closed due to rock slide

“Work will include scaling of loose rock, placing anchors into the rock, and installing wire mesh and concrete buttresses to secure the rock,” PennDOT said.

This will take place over a half-mile stretch at an estimated cost of $3.5 million, according to Sean Brown, safety press officer for PennDOT District 5.

Finding out that the closure will last so long was “kind of devastating,” said Delaware Water Gap Mayor Larry Freshcorn. Small business owners are concerned, he said, and may have to lay off employees.

Freshcorn had initially received an estimate from PennDOT that work would be done in February. Business owners thought they could deal with that a bit longer, “and now to hear that this is going into August is really unacceptable.”

Similarly in Portland, businesses have been struggling since the closure began in December, and some “feel like they may have to close their doors,” Mayor Heather Fischer said.

For Lauren Chamberlain, owner of Asparagus Sunshine in Delaware Water Gap, the closure has put her plans to expand on hold. The shop sells souvenirs and antiques, and Chamberlain had been ready to add an antiques-only space around the corner this spring.

“It’s a devastating feeling to know that everything you’ve worked for as a small business owner is out of your control now,” Chamberlain said.

Beyond small business owners, “it affects the employees. It affects the people in town. It affects the commuters,” Chamberlain said, pointing out that Route 611 acts as an emergency route and secondary option when traffic is backed up on Interstate 80.

“There was a fatal accident on Route 80 a couple weeks ago, and everything was shut down. You could not get in or out of Pennsylvania, because everything was shut down because it was a fatality,” she said.

Both boroughs can be accessed from Interstate 80 — Delaware Water Gap directly from the last Pennsylvania exit, and Portland by exiting in Columbia, N.J., and coming over the Portland-Columbia Toll Bridge. But even when traffic is running smoothly, that may be unappealing to drivers who have to pay tolls to cross the Delaware River.

Backups on 80, as well as drivers who choose to take the scenic route, account for much of the traffic on 611 through Portland, Fischer said. “We see a lot of business that way. We see a lot of traffic that way. People that didn’t even know we were there discover us coming through that way.”

Last spring:Route 611 reopens after 6-week shutdown. Just in time for Memorial Day, say business owners

A previous closure

Route 611 was also closed for repairs in the spring of 2022 after heavy rain damaged a retaining wall.

That was a struggle for businesses too, the mayors said, with Delaware Water Gap and Portland both trying to spread the message that the boroughs were open.

“We’ve learned that we need to work together for sure,” Chamberlain said of the local small business owners, adding that they are “constantly cross-promoting each other” and that their counterparts in Stroudsburg and the surrounding area have also been sharing the message with tourists.

A necessary project

Though the length of the closure is frustrating, leaders understand that the project is necessary to improve safety.

“What they’re doing, we do want,” Fischer said, because it will remove the fear of rock slides.

“I get that PennDOT has to do their thing, and I don’t want to get in the way of doing their thing, but I just think there’s got to be a better way,” said Freshcorn, who is seeking a meeting with PennDOT to discuss his concerns and see whether any alternate solution is possible. He’d like to see at least one lane opened on weekends, with a temporary traffic light at either end of the project area.

Asked whether that might be possible, Brown reiterated the Tuesday announcement: “ For the safety of the motoring public and to be able to complete this work, the road will be closed throughout construction.”

For now, Fischer would like to know whether any funding could be made available to help the small businesses, adding that some did not even apply for pandemic-related assistance. “‘I never applied for it, because I felt like somebody else needed it more than I did,’” Fischer recalled one business owner telling her, and now there isn’t assistance for them.

“Please just make that extra trip,” she said. “Honestly, the small businesses, they are the backbone of these small towns, and these small towns are what bring the tourists up toward the Poconos.”

This article originally appeared on Pocono Record: Route 611 closure in Poconos will last through summer 2023