Almost $1,000,000 in state grants is being awarded to improve the roads and pedestrian paths in the State College area.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has awarded $160,000 to the State College borough to improve bicycle paths and sidewalks connecting the west end of town to the Penn State campus, and $800,000 to Patton Township to install new left turn lanes along Valley Vista Drive.
Patton Township manager Doug Erickson says adding new turn lanes along Valley Vista has been on the township’s radar for years. Erickson says he’s received numerous complaints from residents about congestion and safety concerns, especially with the amount of bus traffic to and from the Park Forest middle and elementary schools.
“This project had been prodding forward slowly, when we’d thought we’d have to do one intersection per year for four years with only local funding,” Erickson says. “Then, as we were looking at this project earlier this year, we learned about this new PennDOT grant.”
The project is expected to go to bid in late 2016 and finish by 2017. It will add left turn lanes to Valley Vista Drive’s intersections with Amblewood Way, Oakley Drive, Sandy Ridge Road and Devonshire Drive.
Erickson says the full cost of the project is estimated at slightly more than $1.2 million, with about 35 percent of the total cost coming from the township.
The State College Borough’s grant will go to improvements in the north ends of Sparks and Gill Streets that connect to Penn State’s west campus. Borough planner Megan Tuttle says both streets are heavily used by bicyclists and pedestrians, but neither one clearly connects to campus.
“People aren’t really sure where they can access west campus coming from that end of town,” Tuttle say. “We’re creating a more continuous infrastructure connection between the campus and the community.”
Exactly where the connections will be made has yet to be decided, but the process will involve new signs and sidewalks to improve pedestrian safety and travel efficiency.
Tuttle estimates the total cost to be about $230 thousand, with about $70 thousand coming from the borough. No tentative timeline is available, as further planning and discussion with PennDot still needs to be wrapped up.
The funding for these projects – and a total of ninety one projects across Pennsylvania – comes from last year’s Act 89 transportation funding bill.
PennDOT press secretary Rick Kirkpatrick says in an email that these grants are intended to improve the infrastructure of the state for all modes of transportation.
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