Around-the-Clock Work, Lane Restrictions Scheduled for North Atherton Street

Traffic in the North Atherton Street project work zone will be restricted to one lane in each direction beginning Monday as crews are scheduled to be working around the clock for the installation of a box culvert.

The 24-hour work for the installation is expected to take about 10 days and the traffic restrictions will be in place until that work is completed. PennDOT advises drivers to consider alternate routes.

The start of the installation work is weather dependent. 

Marc Maney, PennDOT’s chief inspector in charge of the project, said earlier this year that the existing box culvert at Big Hollow Run, which runs under the road in the area of Discovery Space and TGI Friday’s, is too small and is deteriorating. Excavation depth and the need to install the box culvert in steps will take some time, necessitating the 24-hour work schedule.

‘[The new one] isn’t a large box culvert,’ Maney said. ‘But it will definitely hold more volume than what’s there now and will keep water moving down through.’

In other areas of the project:

– Through September, there will be no pedestrian signal heads at the Park Avenue intersection because a temporary traffic signal is in use. No pedestrian crossing is allowed at this location.

– Hillcrest Avenue, Arbor Way, Ridge Avenue and Park Avenue on the right side of Atherton Street heading toward the university will be closed at various times throughout the week to prepare for and install concrete curb and sidewalk. Message boards will indicate when the street closures are in place.

– The long-term lane closure on the far-right side of Atherton Street between Cherry Lane and Curtin Road traveling toward the university will remain in place to install curbing and sidewalk.

Overall work on the current phase of the multi-year Atherton Street project involves new drainage improvements, curbing, sidewalks, ADA ramps, traffic signal upgrades, new concrete median and paving, as well as new and relocated utilities.

Work will be added this year that will extend the Park Avenue turning lane heading away from the university. It will widen the roadway and install new curbing from Park Avenue to Curtin Road. That work is expected to be mostly completed by the end of November. This phase will be extended into the spring of 2020 to add drainage and casing installation for future use as a utility crossing by Penn State, as well roadway widening, traffic signal upgrades, curbing and ADA compliant curb ramp installation. 

Adding the work to the current contract eliminates the need to again restrict pedestrian crossing at the Park Avenue intersection during the next phase of the project.

The next phase of the Atherton Street project will extend to Westerly Parkway. A start date is contingent on finalized funding, but work is expected to begin in late 2020 or in 2021. A final phase will eventually continue the project from Westerly Parkway to the area near Meyer Dairy on South Atherton Street.