An increasingly busy intersection in Patton Township will be reconfigured this summer after more than two years of discussion and planning.
Patton Township supervisors on Wednesday awarded a bid for the reconstruction of Fox Hill and Bernel roads to HRI, Inc., of State College, for $1.5 million.
The project is a public-private partnership, with funding coming from a $700,000 state grant awarded in November, $150,000 from the township, and the remaining $650,000 from the developers of the Bernel Road tract that includes the Nittany Valley Sports Centre.
The intersection will be reconfigured as a ‘standard T,’ with a stop sign on the Bernel Road approach and Fox Hill Road as the through-road. Dedicated left turn lanes will be added on both roads, and the project also includes new driveways into the NVSC site. State College Borough Water Authority also will replace 800 feet of water main along Fox Hill Road as part of the project and reimburse the township for the cost.
As currently configured, the intersection is termed a non-standard T. Eastbound and left-turning traffic on Fox Hill and right turning traffic on Bernel have right of way over westbound through traffic on Fox Hill.
Township Manager Doug Erickson said the hope is to begin construction in mid-July and finish by the end of October.
The project is expected to make for safer and more efficient travel for vehicles traveling to and from University Park Airport and bicyclists using the road, as well as supporting mixed-use development at the northwest corner of the intersection.
Decibel Partners is developing a 60-acre site near the intersection, and the area in the township’s Planned Airport District has been growing, with Nittany Valley Sports Centre and Wynwood House Personal Care Community built and operating a short distance down Bernel Road from the intersection. Future development is expected to include a mix of duplex units, office, retail, lodging and light industrial.
Plans also were submitted in 2019 for a new warehouse and office space for PBCI-Allen Mechanical & Electrical and Peno Engineering, with a future phase on that would include a multi-tenant retail/commercial building on the property next to the Nittany Valley Sports Centre.
Working with Decibel Partners, the township first submitted an application for a state grant in 2018, but the grant was not awarded at the time. The township submitted the application again in 2019 when it was awarded the grant through the Commonwealth Financing Authority’s Multimodal Transportation Funding Program
