The recommended route for a long-planned major highway project in Centre County will be revealed at a public meeting in May.
PennDOT will hold its second scoping meeting for the State College Area Connector route from 4 to 8 p.m. on May 8 at the Wyndham Garden State College, 310 Elks Club Road, Boalsburg. The project study team will present the three refined alignments under consideration in Potter and Harris townships and PennDOT’s recommended preferred route to advance for further design.
The public will have the opportunity view project exhibits and meet with the study team to ask questions and make comments. Meeting materials and exhibits will be available starting May 5 at PennDOT.pa.gov/SCAC. Written comments can be submitted by mail to PennDOT District 2-0, attention Eric Murnyack or Leigh Woolridge, 70 PennDOT Drive, Clearfield, PA 16830; via email to emurnyack@pa.gov or lwoolridge@pa.gov; or online through the study webpage.
The connector project aims to construct an approximately 8-mile, four-lane limited access road connecting U.S. 322 at Potters Mills and the Mount Nittany Expressway near Boalsburg, addressing safety and congestion concerns and improving traffic flow into the State College area and Interstates 80 and 99.
PennDOT completed the first phase of project development in August 2023 with publication of the final Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) report for the SCAC study, which identified three “build alternatives” to move forward. Conducted with the FHWA, the study evaluated existing and projected transportation needs within a 70-square-mile area in the U.S. Route 322, state Route 45 and state route 144 corridor.
Each of the three identified options — north, central and south — would connect U.S. 322 at the Mt. Nittany Expressway in Boalsburg and U.S. 322 at Potters Mills Gap, where a four-lane section of highway was completed in 2021. The link would essentially complete a four-lane highway from Harrisburg to State College and beyond.
All three would have service roads connecting to the local road network. Each is projected to divert nearly 53% of the total traffic and 73% of truck traffic from the local road network. Estimated costs range from $432 million and $517 million.
PennDOT announced in January 2024 that it was removing a connection to Route 45 included in two of the three options. Instead, PennDOT is allocating up to $3 million to separately study and address safety concerns on Route 45 in Harris and Potter identified during the PEL study.
The first scoping meeting was held in August. Among those who responded to a public comment survey, more than 70% said they preferred the central or south alignments because they had the least impact on environmental and agricultural lands, residences and businesses. Some also said the central route aligned more closely with the existing U.S. Route 322, and that the south route was furthest from residential properties.
Following next month’s second scoping meeting, a public hearing will be held after the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for public and agency review.
The final Environmental Impact Statement and Record of Decision are anticipated in June 2026.
Pending approval by the FHWA, the project will then move into the final engineering design phase. That will be followed by right-of-way acquisition and, finally, construction, which is not expected to begin until 2030 and will take about five years to complete.
