Officials look to build case for I-80/99 interchanges

Efforts to fund a local access interchange and high speed interchange at the crossroads of interstates 80 and 99 have hit roadblocks for more than a decade.

It hasn’t been smooth sailing for drivers, either, with 60 crashes in a three-year period at the crossroads of the two major highways.

Local municipalities hope the data ignites an interest with state lawmakers to garner funding for the interchanges, which would cost a combined $164 million, according to 2014 estimates. Spring Township Manager Bill MacMath hopes to organize a gathering at the site with lawmakers for them to see what causes backed up traffic and dangerous situations.

Traffic, he said, often gets backed up at the turn lane onto the eastbound I-80 on ramp and beyond. It is also difficult, particularly during rush hour, to exit the eastbound ramp and cross on northbound route 26.

Westbound I-80 exit ramps also cause congestion to the point of the ramps exceeding beyond capacity and running onto the travel lane. Drivers also contribute to the problematic area, MacMath said, and often ignore or roll through a stop sign at the I-80 westbound off ramp that exits onto Jacksonville Road, where some cars get up to 60 mph.

Most accidents in the area have been minor, MacMath said, but he worries that won’t always be the case.

“Fortunately, no one has died in any of those accidents,” he said. “There have been some serious ones where people have been injured and taken to the hospital, but I’m thankful no one has died.”

He hopes that lawmakers will make the long-proposed interchanges priorities on federal and state transportation bills.

All he can count on, at least for now, are attempts to make minor improvements to the area, according to Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization principal transportation planner Tom Zilla.

“We are trying to do short term items for safety improvements,” Zilla said. “We are in the early stages of talking to PennDOT about it. I don’t know if it’ll fly. We’ll find out in the next few weeks.”

The prospect of doing the interchange projects, Zilla said, is dismal, particularly because the $164 million price tag goes well beyond federal funds available for him to work with. The federal funds, he said, are funneled through the state to different counties.

“Centre County’s allocation for the current program for roads and bridges is about $60 million for four years for all road and bridge improvements,” Zilla said. “That’s what we get. We have 33 bridge projects, and they typically are $1 million to $2 million each. We had the Whitehall Road project. That was $15 million. There’s no way with our resources right now that we’d be able to fund it, which is common for those kinds of projects across the commonwealth.”

The only saving grace for major upgrades would be a spike in the county’s funds.

“There’s just not enough funds for all roadway and bridge projects, and the state has to take resources and be selective with what they do,” Zilla said. “Most resources are going to bridge repairs and improvements on existing infrastructure, but not projects like this.”

If approved and carried out, Zilla said a high speed interchange would connect I-80 and I-99 with a series of free flowing, high-speed ramps, but drivers wouldn’t be able to access local roads at the interchange.

A local access interchange would be built farther north, he said, and would be a diamond-like interchange to get on and off I-80 to Jacksonville Road.

“In terms of the process or past processes, the local access interchange was almost done in terms of design,” Zilla said. “The design for high speed interchange was about 65 percent done. They’d have to do some work there, but it wouldn’t be a start from scratch.”

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 6:47 PM with the headline "Officials look to build case for I-80/99 interchanges."