A portion of a busy downtown State College road will be closed to traffic for three days in June for installation of a crane to be used in the construction of a high-rise condominium hotel.
The closure of West Beaver Avenue between South Atherton and South Burrowes streets, approved by Borough Council on Monday night, is tentatively scheduled for Monday, June 8, through Wednesday, June 10, depending on weather. During that time, crews will be erecting a tower crane for construction of the nine-story Nittany Residence Club at 321 W. Beaver Ave.
An official posted detour will direct vehicles to follow Park Avenue to University Drive to East College Avenue in order to return downtown, according to the information presented to council.
Council President Evan Myers said one of his concerns is that diverting traffic from the two eastbound lanes of Beaver Avenue to one eastbound lane on Park Avenue would cause backups.
Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the detour has been used for similar work in the past.
“This has been pretty typical of the traffic pattern changes that have occurred when we’ve installed cranes and other projects in the past and College or Beaver, either one, had to be closed,” Fountaine said. “Certainly there are increases in traffic, but this has to be detoured onto PennDOT rights of way.”
Myers added that he is worried drivers familiar with the area will use neighborhood side streets instead of the detour, as he has observed happen in the past.
“I think we need to be prepared to help direct people because, as I reported to you when this happened a year or so ago, there were people driving all over the place, and some of them were driving at excessive speeds in neighborhoods where there are little kids around,” Myers said.
Changeable message boards will begin displaying information about the closure and detour two weeks in advance, according to information provided by project contractor Leonard S. Fiore and included in Monday’s council agenda. PennDOT’s Traffic Management Center will also sens information to GPS navigation providers regarding the closure.
After consulting with Alpha Fire Company, additional signage will be in place to help prevent large trucks from trying to use Highland Alley, and fire police will assist with manual control of the traffic signal at Atherton Street and Beaver Avenue if necessary.
Additionally, with ongoing work on West Calder Way for the borough’s Calder Way Project, New Alley will be temporarily converted to two ways with 24-hour flaggers and lights at night provided by Leonard S. Fiore to maintain access to nearby impacted properties.
Responding to another question from Myers, Fountaine said using the roadway is the only feasible option to erect the crane.
“There’s not sufficient room in the right of way in the alleys,” he said. “Consistently over the past 10 years, as projects have been built, it’s been a two-lane closure for those crane installations and they typically are closed for three days. This is pretty typical and pretty normal for crane installation.”
The sidewalk on the opposite side of Beaver Avenue from the construction site will remain open to pedestrians.
Once the crane installation is completed, the long-term lane shift currently in place on West Beaver Avenue near the construction site will return and is scheduled to be in place until September.
Council also approved a closure of the same section from June 21 to June 23, 2027 to dismantle the crane.
The Nittany Residence Club is a planned 70-unit building that offers one- to three-bedroom luxury condominiums for sale to individual owners, who can use them as part-time or vacation homes but not as permanent residences. When the owner is not staying at the condo, they can choose to place it in the hotel inventory for overnight guest stays, with the owner receiving income and a percentage going to the hotel operator.
Penn State alumni Gary Brandeis, Jim Venture and Jamison Morse are developing the project, and Brandeis’ Scholar Hotel Group will operate the hotel. It is slated for completion in 2027.
