Addressing transportation needs in a rural area with one of the nation’s largest universities smack in the middle presents some unique challenges — and opportunities.
“There is a background level of economic activity that comes with” being home to Penn State University, says James Saylor, principal transportation planner for theCentre Regional Planning Agency.
“One of the consequences of good economic growth is that it sometimes overwhelms the tools you put in place for it, and you have to go back to the drawing board. We’re fortunate to have that issue.”
With two major highway projects in the works that will change the nature of travel to and from Centre County, Saylor says “we’re at a great moment.”
In May, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced its recommended route for the long-planned State College Area Connector project, an approximately eight-mile, four-lane limited-access road connecting Route 322 at Potters Mills and the Mount Nittany Expressway near Boalsburg.
And work is well underway on the three-phase project to create a direct, high-speed connection between interstates 80 and 99 in Bellefonte, along with some related improvements for access to local roads.
“Centre County is an attractive place to live and work, and we want to keep it that way,” says Raymond J. Stolinas Jr., the county’s director of planning and community development. “And I think with these transportation improvements, that kind of ensures it for quite a while.”
The progress on those projects “sets us up where we’re looking down the line and thinking very carefully about what we can do next, where we can really make a difference,” Saylor says.
Among other needs outlined in long- and shorter-range transportation planning documents, the look ahead includes studies on the booming Benner Pike corridor and the sometimes-congested area where Phoenix Avenue intersects with Route 150 in Bellefonte.
Here’s more from our conversation on some key transportation topics in Centre County:
State College Area Connector
In May, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation recommended what is known as the “central alternative” for the connector. The new route will run primarily south of the existing U.S. 322 in Potter and Harris townships, with a section approximately between Bamboo Lane and Tait Road running to the north.
PennDOT says 16 residences would be displaced by the central alternative, the fewest of the three options considered. It would also impact 19 farms totaling 163 acres — the smallest in terms of acreage among the three options — and two commercial properties.
The department says the project will improve safety and reduce congestion, but some residents have expressed concerns about loss of property and the connector’s impact on the environment.
There are still many steps ahead before construction can begin, including an environmental impact study and right-of-way acquisition. Construction isn’t expected until 2030, with completion in 2036.
Low-cost safety improvements could be considered in the interim, Saylor says.
When this project is completed, what do you think it will mean for the region? How will it change things?
Stolinas: I think what Jim was just talking about ultimately is safety and to make sure the driving public coming in and out of Centre County has a reliable route to take and also an efficient route. But safety, I think, is on the minds of everyone.
Saylor: Safety. And I think there’s an economic development component to it. Good highway access makes sites in the Centre Region more desirable, more viable.
I think there’s an operations point to it as well. Six, seven weekends a year, a hundred thousand of our closest friends come up just for the weekend. How do you make sure that that’s not risking welfare for them and for the residents in the region?
Maybe the short version is that it makes it easier for us to participate and do all the things we’d otherwise do — safely.
Interstates 80/99 Interchange
Construction on the project to provide a direct connection between interstates 80 and 99 began in September 2024 and is expected to be completed by 2030. (The first phase, a local access interchange at mile marker 163, was completed in 2022. A third phase, to reconstruct and widen Route 26, is also underway.)
Economic development folks see the State College Area Connector and that I-80/99 high-speed interchange as being very impactful. What’s your view?
Stolinas: I think on the whole, with considering both these projects and everything else in between, one of my favorite pieces of information that I talk about is the commuter numbers that we see in Centre County and what kind of jobs that are being offered here. People from outside the fringe areas of Clinton, Huntington, Mifflin [counties], the numbers are there that show that that driving public depends on access and a safe route to their place of work here in Centre County. So that’s impactful. That’s over, I think, 11,000 people that come into Centre County and work every day from the counties around us.
Benner Pike Corridor Study
The Benner Pike Corridor Study will consider conditions and the impact of continued growth on Benner Pike (State Route 150) from the Interstate 99 interchange to Bellefonte. Officials hoped to start work on the study in July, with completion of the study in a year, Saylor said.
What kinds of things would you be looking at in terms of improvements to that corridor?
Saylor: What we’re really hoping to find out is what kind of improvements are going to be necessary to address the conditions. The way the land development process and the highway occupancy permit process works, when you’re going through and doing your traffic study, you can only consider the approved development. We’ve got a lot of projects trying to come through the development pipeline in there that haven’t quite gotten their work approved, and so there’s no full-buildout study for the whole corridor.
This is a chance to provide that full-buildout analysis and instead of each developer trying to fix their little piece of the impacts, take a more big-picture view and see, do we need bigger improvements like more through lanes? Is there a possibility to do a smaller set of improvements, say, lane and signal improvements at key intersections, that would be a lot less expensive but would still address it? Or is it something where maybe we’re kind of teetering on the edge right now and we can mostly improve it, but we need to reserve right-of-way for future improvements? So, can we get that information in the hands of the municipalities so that as they’re approving this, they can say to the developers, “By the way, we need 70 feet through here, not just 50 feet.”
Stolinas: I think as part of the land development process there’s only so much you can do from development to development, depending on what their traffic counts are going to be. … The township has their own transportation engineer and they have their own road and driveway standards. So, we try to partner with them to make sure that the developer is adhering to that proper design, and that helps.
When you take everything into consideration along that corridor, you’ve got to look at the whole picture with regard to what kind of traffic is going to be generated by the land uses that the township has outlined. A majority of those land uses are going to be commercial and industrial the way the township is zoned.
Would sidewalks be a part of that study?
Saylor: I think that’s one of the things we want to talk about because even five years ago, there were four or five pharmacies in the downtown Bellefonte area that you could walk to. Now the big grocery stores have moved out. The chains, at least one of them is closed, and the two old-fashioned pharmacies have closed and retired out of business, so to get your prescription filled, you can’t walk to it anymore. Same with groceries. Where can you walk in to buy groceries in downtown Bellefonte?
So, I think that’s one of the things we want to talk about as part of this, whether the right-of-way exists. Can we provide that? And is it reasonable? Can we close all the gaps and get those people all the way from downtown Bellefonte to the far extents of the corridor safely? What would that take?
Route 150/Phoenix Avenue Study
A study is underway to examine potential improvements to the intersection of Route 150 and Phoenix Avenue near Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte, where traffic often backs up at busy times. Findings in a 2018 interim report on a previous study were shared at municipal meetings, but no consensus on a suitable and buildable alternative was developed. Those options included:
- Signalization and timing upgrades on the Route 150 Corridor/Mill Street.
- Align the Mill Street and Phoenix Avenue intersections. This option was broken into sub-options, one that included a single signal at the realigned intersection and one that included two separate signals at the existing locations.
- Match Factory northern access (bridge to South Potter Street).
- Rishel Hill Road improvements.
Are those alternatives still possibilities?
Saylor: Volumes and travel patterns have changed since this work was completed in 2018, so we’ll need to see what comes out of the current study [managed by PennDOT] to see if any of them are still valid options.
Stolinas: You also have a [planned] full buildout of a waterfront project down in the middle of town with a hotel and with residential and commercial space, along with a group that’s diligently looking at putting a band shell in Talleyrand. So that’s another traffic generator. You’ve got to balance all that along with the improvements. T&G
For more information and links to detailed planning documents, visit crcog.net and click on Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization in the drop-down menu.
Mark Brackenbury is a former editor of Town&Gown.
