The current phase of road work on Atherton Street in State College won’t be completed until later this year, but the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is already planning for the next stage.
PennDOT is in the early stages of design for improvements to South Atherton Street between Westerly Parkway and University Drive, PennDOT Engineering District 2 project manager Jared Lapczynski and Lou Spaciano of project engineer Verdantas told State College Borough Council on Monday.
The project is expected to begin construction in 2029, though it could start a year earlier, Lapczynski said. A budget is not yet available for the project, which will be funded by PennDOT, but Lapczynski said he expects it would be as much or more than the $30.7 million cost for the current phase of work between Curtin Road and Westerly Parkway.
Like the current and past phases of Atherton Street work, the next project will involve roadway, drainage, traffic signal and pedestrian improvements, along with any needed utility replacements, on the 1-mile stretch.
But PennDOT is also planning to study a potential “road diet” for the area. A road diet, Spaciano said, would create a three-lane road by reducing the number of travel lanes from two to one in each direction and using the remaining width to create a center turn lane and possibly bike lanes.
A preliminary concept envisions one 11-foot-wide travel lane in each direction and a 14-foot center lane.
“Over the years lanes were added for capacity but that impacts other characteristics,” Spaciano said. “The key improvements [of a road diet] are safety, operations, access and quality of life.”
Such a configuration would be designed to reduce the number of vehicle conflict points and severity of rear and side-angle collisions on a section of road that has had 70 reportable crashes in the last five years, Spaciano explained.
It would also separate left turns from through traffic and reduce speed differentials “because the vehicles that are stopping to turn are now in the center turn lane,” he said. The center lane would additionally provide better access for left turns from side streets because vehicles would have a dedicated lane to turn into instead of crossing two lanes of traffic.
A road diet, according to Spaciano, is a traffic calming measure that could provide “improved comfort level through pedestrian improvements, bicycle lanes and reduced speed differential.”
PennDOT performed traffic counts in October and November and found 7,718 average daily vehicles near Westerly Parkway, 11,503 near Pugh Street, 15,921 near East Whitehall Road and 24,905 near CVS just past University Drive. The Federal Highway Administration advises that roads with 15,000 or fewer vehicles per day are good candidates for a four-lane to three-lane road diet.
“The key thing we need to look at is will this work, because obviously whenever you take away travel lanes there’s a number of components that we need to look at,” he said. “Really that’s where we’re looking to take the next step is to complete a study that will focus on the impacts on speed, level and quality of service, average daily traffic, peak hour and peak direction, turning volumes and patterns, frequently stopping and slow-moving vehicles.”
The study would compare how the roadway functions under its existing conditions with the implementation of a road diet.
“So the one lane each direction with a center turn lane, how would the operational characteristics be compared to the present day condition,” Lapczynski said. “The study would analyze it. Obviously, if it got worse than we wouldn’t propose it. Some places they work and some places they don’t, and that’s what the analysis would help with.”
MIXED REACTIONS
Reactions from borough council members were split, with some opposing the road diet concept and questioning whether the study should be conducted at all.
Council President Evan Myers said he and fellow Holmes-Foster residents are concerned reducing the number of travel lanes will cause backups and, in turn, some drivers would try to use neighborhood streets to avoid traffic.
“If people start zooming through neighborhoods to get away from the traffic, that doesn’t make my neighborhood or other neighborhoods safer at all. It makes them less safe,” Myers said.
That’s what happened when detours were implemented during the current phase of work over the last two years, and an increased police presence was needed to slow traffic through the neighborhoods, he added.
“I don’t think PennDOT really has an understanding of the community, and I’m just really surprised … that you made this suggestion,” Myers said.
He also voiced worries about the impact on businesses along that section of Atherton Street and on traffic traveling to and from State College Area High School, as well as the effect an abrupt change from four travel lanes to two would have on drivers.
Council member Josh Portney expressed similar concerns, saying he was driving on Atherton Monday afternoon and both eastbound travel lanes were backed up from University Drive to past the Ramada, and that he feared reducing the number of travel lanes would make congestion worse.
“We can’t just change that culture just by making it a road diet,” Portney said. “So those businesses are going to be there and they’re going to be negatively impacted by us constricting traffic into one lane because you’re going to have lots build up.”
Lapczynski said PennDOT wants to ensure it does not decrease capacity, acknowledging existing businesses and future development in the area.
Council member Matt Herndon supported the idea of a road diet and said the study might clear up the “misunderstanding” of its effects.
“People see, oh we’re going from two lanes in each direction down to one in each direction and think oh that’s going to massively reduce traffic speed and massively reduce throughput of cars,” Herndon said. “I think a study is going to help clear up that’s not the case.”
Myers also questioned whether Atherton Street was appropriate for bike lanes. While he said more bike lanes are needed in the borough, he felt Atherton Street is too dangerous a place to put them.
Herndon suggested they should be raised to sidewalk level and could help provide a connection to bike lanes being considered on Pugh and Allen Street in the borough’s own transportation planning.
“That would be something to consider if it’s feasible,” Mayor Ezra Nanes said. “If it’s not, I don’t know if we want bikes right next to Atherton traffic because we all know it’s very busy.”
Myers said he opposed studying a road diet unless it involved blocking off lanes on Atherton Street to see how drivers actually responded. Herndon countered that doing so would not take into account the effect of the center turn lane, and creating a temporary one for the study would be nearly impossible.
“There’s a whole field of research on this, and we shouldn’t treat every instance of changing roads as some snowflake,” Herndon said. “We should look at the research, and it’s out there.”
Portney supported the study only as a necessity to eliminate the possibility of a road diet. Council member Divine Lipscomb shared a similar sentiment.
Council member Nalini Krishankutty said the study is the only way to see if it will work, and council member Kevin Kassab said he felt the study was “critical” to begin addressing pedestrian safety issues.
Ultimately, PennDOT owns the road and does not need the borough’s permission to conduct the study or move forward with plans. But Lapczynski said PennDOT does take the input seriously, noting that it shelved a proposed road diet on Boal Avenue after negative feedback from Harris Township supervisors and residents.
“From a legal authority, PennDOT has the final say,” Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said. “Our experience with PennDOT is that they’ve always been receptive to the council’s position, as well as the members of the community.”
A road diet study performed by Stahl Shaeffer Engineering is expected to take about two months and will then be submitted to PennDOT for review, Spaciano said.
PennDOT intends to bring the matter back to council for discussion and potentially will host a public meeting to present design options, he added. The department also would hold public hearings for preliminary and final designs.
State College Transportation Commission Chair Hugh Mose said Atherton Street from Westerly to the borough line is “at the very top of our list of things we’re interested in,” and that the study is important to addressing safety and traffic.
“I feel bad that it was called a road diet study, because in my view, and I think I can speak for the commission, it’s a safety study,” Mose said. “It’s a capacity study. It’s a traffic congestion study. I think the community deserves to have the study conducted so we can make the best possible recommendations as a borough to PennDOT, who has the ultimate authority.”
WHAT THE PROJECT WILL DO
Whether or not the road diet is implemented, the project will include components for roadway, traffic and pedestrian improvements.
Road work will include pavement mill and overlay, full-depth base replacement at select locations, curb and gutter adjustments, lane widening to meet minimum standards, cross slope correction and ADA ramp improvements at intersections.
Drainage improvements are expected to include additional inlets, ensuring a 2% crowned section cross slope and increasing the concrete gutter width to 1.5 feet.
Traffic signal upgrades will involve radar presence detection, pedestrian stub poles with pushbuttons, pedestal pole installation, mast arm replacements and pavement markings at signalized intersections.
PennDOT is also looking at improving pedestrian crossing access. No dedicated pedestrian crossings currently exist on Atherton between Allen Street and University Drive, in what Spaciano called a high-pedestrian area.
Preliminarily, the design team is looking at installing a crosswalk at the Pugh Street intersection and rectangular rapid flashing beacons to alert motorists of pedestrians crossing.
Myers and Herndon both said the beacons may not be enough and suggested a full traffic signal might be needed at the Pugh Street intersection.
Herndon added that the current lack of pedestrian crossings makes it too dangerous for children from Tusseyview to walk the half mile to Easterly Parkway, or for residents to even walk to businesses on the opposite side of Atherton Street.
A road diet would also improve pedestrian access, Herndon said.
“I see people run across that road and it’s incredibly dangerous for them to do so,” he said. “It’s not something that is helpful to those businesses. They have tons of customers right there that are ready to patronize them and they can’t get there unless they’re in a car. Making it so people can cross Atherton in this area is hugely important, and I think this road diet is a really critical step toward that.”
Herndon also suggested PennDOT consider reconfiguring the Allen Street/Waupelani Drive intersection, which he said is “one of the most confusing dangerous intersections that we have.”
Lapczynski said PennDOT is looking at what can be done with that intersection.
“We understand there are congestion issues there,” he said. “You could cut a cross-section on Atherton every 500 feet and you’re going to have a different traffic count, you’re going to have a different count of pedestrians, bicyclists, so we’re not looking at just the overall picture. We have to look at each section as one of the things we’re going to do as part of this road diet study and some other design aspects.”
The next phase of Atherton Street work will be the fourth originating from a 2010 review of the entire corridor that showed a need for repairs and upgrades, primarily for drainage.
Since then, PennDOT has completed two phases of improvements from the start of North Atherton Street near Gray’s Woods to Park Avenue. The third phase from Curtin Road to Westerly Parkway got underway in 2022 and is projected to be completed in November.
Spaciano said the goal is to continue to the Scenery Drive intersection in College Township, but that right now it appears funding for the next phase will take it as far as University Drive intersection.
