Detour Provides Easy Access to St. Luke’s Miners Campus During Tamaqua Bridge Closure

The US 209/West Broad Street Bridge over Wabash Creek in Tamaqua Borough, Schuylkill County, will close this summer. St. Luke’s Miners Campus in nearby Coaldale, however, will continue to be accessible via a detour.

Work on the bridge started April 9, and preliminary operations include surveying, excavation, drainage upgrades and sidewalk / curbing work on outlying intersections along the planned detour route. Initial work will be at the intersections of Railroad and Spruce Streets and Spruce Street and PA 309. Motorists can anticipate daytime lane restrictions (9 am to 3 pm) in the area until the end of the school year.

Over the summer, the bridge will be closed and detoured. The car detour will use South Railroad Street, West Spruce Street and South Lehigh Street. The truck detour will use PA 309, PA 54, I-81 and PA 61.

The roadway is expected to be open again before the new school year begins, with daytime lane restrictions again being used thereafter.

During the full road closure, a temporary traffic signal will be utilized at the intersection of Spruce and Hunter streets.

St. Luke’s Miners Campus features advanced inpatient and outpatient services with full access to the latest treatments and technologies. Patients benefit from quality inpatient care, emergency room services, surgical services, radiology services and more.

Detour Details

• Truck Detour will be for all trucks over two axles. Normal truck turn-around will be via old 209 through Newkirk and Reevesdale. Last resort turn-around will be at the High School.

   

• Hegarty Ave. will be one way west to east, from Nescopec Street to Berwick Street.

   

• Rowe Street will remain one way east to west.

   

• Nescopec Street will be two way from Broad Street to Hegarty Ave.

   

• Broad Street will be one way east from Nescopec Street to Hunter Street.

   

• Hunter Street will be one way south from Broad Street to Spruce Street. New traffic signals will be installed at the intersection of Spruce and Hunter Streets.

• Spruce Street will be one way east from South Railroad Street to Center Street with two lanes. The right lane will be thru traffic and right turn. The left lane will be for left turn only.

Please call St. Luke’s InfoLink at 1-866-STLUKES (785-8537) or the Borough of Tamaqua at 570-668-3444 or 570-668-0300 with questions or concerns.

View traffic map.

Media Contact:

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of 14,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and over 300 outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $1.9 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 28 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 226 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only health care system in central-eastern Pennsylvania to earn Medicare’s five-star rating (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health (formerly Truven Health Analytics) repeatedly – six times total and four years in a row including 2018.  It has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.