Road work spanning three construction seasons on Atherton Street in State College is about to get underway, according to PennDOT.
The nearly $31 million next phase of PennDOT’s Atherton Street project, stretching from Curtin Road on North Atherton Street to just past Westerly Parkway on South Atherton Street, is expected to last until fall 2024.
Here’s what’s happening beginning Monday:
• Monday through Friday: Crews will be placing long-term signage and message boards throughout the downtown and surrounding areas in preparation of sewer line relocation work currently scheduled to begin on Aug. 1.
• Tuesday and Wednesday: Crews will partially remove concrete islands and then pave at the corner of Atherton Street and College Avenue and at the corner of Buckhout Street and West College Avenue. (Traffic will be detoured down College Avenue to Buckhout Street to Beaver Avenue to reach South Atherton Street when work is taking place between the College and Beaver intersections)
A daytime traffic control pattern will be used with one lane closed on College Avenue and one lane closed on Atherton. Traffic signals will be in flash mode, with flaggers controlling flow of traffic at the intersections.
• Wednesday and Thursday: Crews will be saw-cutting on Atherton Street between West College and West Beaver avenues. Traffic signals will be in flash mode with flaggers controlling the flow of traffic at the intersections.
PennDOT expects some detours to begin in early August.
Didn’t this already start?
Preliminary work at the north and south ends of the project area last summer and fall and again earlier this summer involved gas line relocations and a portion of sewer line relocations. Now the project is set to begin in earnest.
What does it involve?
Similar to the last phase of Atherton Street work, which spanned from Aaron Drive to Curtin Road between 2018 and 2020, will include roadway reconstruction, drainage improvements, water and sewer lines, concrete curbing, sidewalks and detectable warning surfaces, pavement markings and traffic signals and supports.
Work also will incorporate the borough’s streetscape project between West Beaver Avenue and Railroad Avenue. State College received a $935,000 state grant in 2018 for the project, which is designed for pedestrian safety and traffic calming, with new sidewalk, pavers, decorative lighting, benches and garbage receptacles, as well as pedestrian fencing between West College and West Beaver avenues.
HRI Inc. of State College is the contractor on the $30,702,634 job.
