POTTERS MILLS — A road construction project set to begin next spring will bring new Route 322 lanes and a local interchange to the Potters Mills area.
Some local roads will lose direct access to the major east/west corridor that leads into Mifflin County and is a well-traveled route for Harrisburg to State College travelers. While coming west and north from Mifflin County, Route 322 continues as four lanes as it climbs past the Laurel Creek Reservoir and Bald Mountain. But, at the far side of the mountains, before an intersection with Route 144, Route 322 narrows to two travel lanes, with several local access roads branching off.
The B06 phase of the Potters Mills Gap Project, as it is known to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, will offer a new interchange west of the current Route 144 intersection and offer a new four-lane highway with a nearby two-lane local road.
Route 322 will then narrow to two lanes west of Mountain Back Road, about a half mile west of Route 144.
The Route 144 interchange and other nearby work is the third of three phases. The Potters Mills Gap project stretches from there to the Centre and Mifflin county line near the top of the mountain close to the rest area. The first phase was a $1,944,805 bridge over Route 322 near Sandcrest Road, completed in September 2015. The Sand Mountain Road interchange phase began in August 2016 at a cost of $8,676,545. PennDOT has not yet posted the cost of the final phase of work.
Local officials and planners have long been considering the replacement of Route 322 between Potters Mills and Boalsburg. There is some county funding to refresh data collection for what was formerly known as the South Central Centre County Transportation Study that has been inactive since 2004.
There has been hope of a four-lane, limited-access highway connecting the Route 322/Potters Mills area to interstates 99 and 80, known as the “missing link.” While back in 2004 there were multiple options, including a project that follows Route 144 to interstates 99 and 80, no option was picked for further study due to lack of funding.
Right now, planners are undertaking a data refresh of the study in hopes of working toward filling in that missing link, said Mike Bloom, county transportation planner.
A part of that consideration is also rebuilding the interstates 99 and 80 interchange to make it high speed and comply with federal regulations for interstate interchanges in rural areas, Bloom said.
