Pennsylvania, it’s been said, has two seasons: winter and construction.
Before you know it, winter will be over and construction on bridges and roads will be getting under way. And once again in Centre County, there will be a number of projects happening this spring and summer.
At this week’s Centre Region Council of Governments General Forum meeting, Tom Zilla, principal transportation planner for the Centre Region Planning Authority, gave an overview of the PennDOT and municipal projects expected to take place this year in the county, with 29 locations expected to see work at some point, not counting smaller local projects.
Eleven of those are bridge projects, 14 are state highway project and four are municipal road projects advanced with PennDOT funding. Precise scheduling is still to be determined for most of the work, which typically begins in April or later.
The highest-impact work is expected to once again be on North Atherton Street between Aaron Drive and Park Avenue. Drivers encountered frequent traffic backups in the area in 2017 as gas utilities were relocated in advance of paving and drainage improvements.
Verizon and West Penn Power utilities will be installed ahead of the construction beginning this summer. Zilla said the utility work could begin as soon as within the next two weeks, but that is weather and temperature dependent. Once contractors begin work on the road construction, it’s expected to last through the 2018 and 2019 construction seasons.
UPDATE: Utility work has begun on the North Atherton Street project. More info here.
Zilla said a team of collaborators — including PennDOT, Centre Region municipalities Penn State and the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization — is working together to communicate information about the scheduling and traffic impacts of the project through email, social media and a website. They’re also planning to work with other community organizations to get information out through email lists.
Elsewhere, two projects in the county will result in extended road closures.
In State College, the borough will reconstruct Easterly Parkway between South Pugh Street and South Garner Street, resulting in complete closure of that section of the road for several weeks this summer.
The Route 45 bridge in Woodward will be closed for a period of five weeks this summer for repairs. Cars will be detoured onto Sinking Spring Road, but trucks will be detoured onto Route 192 the entire distance between Woodward and Lewisburg.
“There’s no way the contractor can do that project without shutting it down completely,’ Zilla said.
In the Centre Region, other projects include:
– Bridge work on the southbound ramps carrying North Atherton Street over Interstate 99.
– Construction of turning lanes at four locations on Valley Vista Drive in Patton Township.
– Paving of I-99, including bridge work, in Patton Township and College Township, between the Atherton Street and Fox Hollow Road areas. All paving will be done at night.
– Maintenance paving on East College Avenue between the Route 322 expressway ramps in College Township and South Garner Street/Shortlidge Road in State College.
– Paving of Route 322 from Harris Township to Potter Township
– Paving of Route 550 in Patton Township and Route 45 in Ferguson Township
– Intersection improvements at Park Avenue and McKee Street in State College and West College Avenue and Corl Street in Ferguson Township.
Other Centre County projects likely to have traffic impacts:
– Phase two of PennDOT’s Potters Mills Gap project is expected to begin in the late spring. This phase of the three phase project will create new local interchange on Route 322 at Sand Mountain Road. Tree cutting in advance of the work has taken place throughout the winter. The third phase of the project will reconstruct Route 322 from Sand Mountain Road to Potters Mills, including a new Route 322/Route 144 intersection.
– Interstate 80 paving from the Clearfield County line to Milesburg.
– Route 322 paving from the area of East Presqueisle Street in Philipsburg to the area of the Philipsburg state police barracks
– Paving of Route 550 in Spring Township, in the area of Weis Markets
– Bridge work on Route 64 in Walker Township
– Bridge repairs on Route 144 in Milesburg. Zilla said PennDOT completed work on the Milesburg truss bridge last year, but an over-height truck drove through and damaged it. ‘So they have to go back through and make some repairs,’ he said.
