Drivers traveling on Atherton Street in State College on Saturday morning should be prepared for heavier traffic than usual, even by Penn State football game day standards.
Ongoing lane restrictions in the area of the West Beaver Avenue and South Atherton Street intersection are expected to cause “extreme congestion during the morning,” prior to Penn State’s noon kickoff against Delaware at Beaver Stadium, State College police wrote in a social media post. Fans attempting to get to West Zone parking lots from the west and south “should expect considerable delays.”
The lane restrictions are part of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s multi-year, $30.7 million Atherton Street reconstruction project. No work takes place during Penn State football home weekends, but the restrictions are long-term traffic controls that are in place around the clock.
With South Atherton reduced to one lane in each direction for a half-mile section between Calder Way and Hill Alley, the turning lane at the Beaver Avenue intersection is not accessible, PennDOT District 2 press officer Timothy Nebgen explained.
“This causes congestion during peak travel times because drivers trying to turn onto Beaver must wait for a break in traffic and through traffic backs up behind them,” Nebgen wrote in an email.
Work at the intersection is scheduled to wrap up next week, which Nebgen said is expected to minimize traffic impacts for the remainder of Penn State football’s home schedule, starting with the White Out game against Iowa on Sept. 23. The Nittany Lions play at Illinois on Sept. 16.
“PennDOT still encourages those with designated lots in the west zone to build extra time into their travel schedules for the duration of the season,” Nebgen wrote.
The work zone of the current Atherton Street project stretches from the Curtin Road intersection on North Atherton to just past the Westerly Parkway intersection on South Atherton. It commenced in 2022 and is expected to conclude at the end of 2024, with overall work including roadway reconstruction, drainage improvements, water and sewer line replacements, concrete curbing, sidewalks and detectable warning surfaces, pavement markings and traffic signals and supports.
Work in 2023 includes water line replacement from College Avenue to Westerly Parkway and drainage and streetscape improvements. In 2024, drainage improvements will take place at the north and south ends of the project and the entire project area will be milled and paved by the end of the year.
It’s the third phase of Atherton Street work originating from a 2010 review of the entire corridor that showed a need for repairs and upgrades, primarily for drainage. The first two phases of improvements, similar to the current work, took place from the start of North Atherton Street near Gray’s Woods to Park Avenue.
