Drivers can now legally go a little faster on a 16-mile stretch of Interstate 99 in Centre County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced on Tuesday that speed limit has increased from 55 to 65 miles per hour between the Gray’s Woods exit at mile marker 68 to the end of the expressway at the Interstate 80 interchange near Bellefonte.
‘The new speed limit is posted and is now legally enforceable,’ a PennDOT news release said.
As first reported last week by StateCollege.com, PennDOT had received numerous requests to conduct a speed study for the area between mile markers 68 and 84. Data from the studies supported raising the speed limit to 65 miles per hour, a PennDOT spokesman said.
Since 2016, the speed limit on I-99 between mile marker 34 near Altoona in Blair County to mile marker 68 in Centre County has been 70 miles per hour.
Timothy Nebgen, safety press officer for PennDOT District 2, said last week that PennDOT will conduct a pre- and post-change comparison study and that any crashes that occur after the increase will be evaluated.
‘Depending on the findings, PennDOT may re-evaluate the corridor with another speed-engineering and traffic study,’ he said.
