A bridge on Interstate 80 in Centre County will soon be partially demolished as part of the project to construct a high-speed interchange with Interstate 99, according to PennDOT.
On Thursday, March 20, and Friday, March 21, the contractor will demolish half of the bridge spanning Route 26 on Interstate 80 eastbound at mile 160 in Marion Township.
The following detours will be in place during the two-day demolition, according to PennDOT:
• Drivers on I-80 westbound heading for Interstate 99 via Route 26 will continue to exit 158/Milesburg. I-99 southbound will not be accessible from the westbound lanes at exit 161/Bellefonte. After taking the Milesburg exit, traffic will take I-80 eastbound back to the 161/Bellefonte interchange to reconnect with I-99.
• Drivers on I-99 northbound heading for Route 26 northbound or I-80 westbound will take I-80 eastbound to exit 163/Jacksonville-Howard. Route 26 northbound and I-80 westbound will not be accessible from I-99 northbound.
• Southbound drivers on Route 26 heading for I-99 southbound will merge onto I-80 westbound at the 161/Bellefonte interchange and follow it to Milesburg. The ramps to I-80 eastbound will not be accessible. After taking the Milesburg exit, drivers will take I-80 eastbound back to the 161/Bellefonte interchange to reconnect with I-99 southbound.
Work recently resumed for the season on the 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.
Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh is the contractor on the interchange project, which will be completed over the next six construction seasons, ending in 2030. Funding for the project 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. The third, $6.9 million phase will reconstruct and widen Route 26/Jacksonville Road from the I-80 Bellefonte exit to Shay Lane in Marion Township. Excavation work for that phase started in November and active construction will begin this year.
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.
