Part of Jacksonville Road will be closed for five days as work continues on the high-speed interchange project connecting Interstates 80 and 99 near Bellefonte, according to PennDOT.
The road will be closed between the on-off ramps for I-80 eastbound and I-80 westbound starting Monday, June 1, for crews to complete drainage work.
During the closure, traffic heading from I-99 northbound to I-80 westbound will first merge onto I-80 eastbound and follow it to exit 163/Jacksonville-Howard, then get on I-80 westbound.
Traffic from Forest Avenue also will not be permitted to access Route 26. Motorists will proceed southbound toward Route 550 and continue from there.
“PennDOT expects this to be a five-day closure, but all construction schedules are subject to change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances,” the department wrote in a news release.
Drivers traveling from I-80 westbound are already unable to connect with I-99 southbound because of a detour currently in place through July.
Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh is the contractor on the $259 million interchange project, which will create a direct connection between I-80 and I-99 via high-speed ramps constructed in Boggs, Spring and Marion townships in the area of the current Bellefonte I-80 exit. It will eliminate the need to travel along Route 26 to access either highway, remove stop-controlled intersections and realign service to local traffic.
Overall construction will include building the interchange, along with ten bridges, four retaining walls, five box culverts, seven sign structures and three changeable message boards, according to PennDOT. It will also include new and reconstructed roadways and ramps, drainage improvements, installing Intelligent Transportation Devices, guide rail and highway lighting, pavement marking, stream improvements and miscellaneous other construction.
The project is scheduled for completion in 2030. Funding includes $170 million provided from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
The interchange is the second and largest phase of a three-phase project. Work also recently began on the third phase, which will reconstruct and widen Route 26/Jacksonville Road from the I-80 Bellefonte exit to Shay Lane in Marion Township.
After Pennsylvania received a $35 million federal grant for the interchange project in 2018, work began in 2020 on the $52 million first phase to create a new local access interchange about 2 miles east of the I-80 Bellefonte exit. The new exit 163, completed in 2022, provides access for local traffic to Jacksonville Road, which will no longer be available from the current Bellefonte exit once the high-speed interchange is complete.
