PATTON TOWNSHIP

Earmarks sought to upgrade I-99 exit

Waddle Road interchange may see improvements

Mike Joseph

PATTON TOWNSHIP — This thriving municipality, favored by three Interstate 99 interchanges, has applied for a $4.5 million federal earmark to double the size of one of them.

The proposed Patton Township project for the Waddle Road interchange, which often chokes the flow of traffic, joined five other projects backed this week by the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The MPO has a Monday deadline to submit earmark requests to U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard Township, who in turn has until a week from today to get the requests to the U.S. House committee on transportation and infrastructure.

That panel is formulating a massive five-year highway funding bill to replace legislation which expires Sept. 30. In a letter to planners across the 5th Congressional District, Thompson said only a small percentage of requests will get funding.

In addition to supporting the Patton Township request, the MPO on Tuesday supported a Centre County earmark request for $8.8 million to improve U.S. Route 322 between Boalsburg and Potters Mills and a $4 million

CATA earmark to expand its maintenance garage.

The MPO asked for $8.5 million to widen Whitehall Road, $1.6 million to improve state Route 350 in Rush Township and $3.7 million to build a center left-turn lane on state Route 550 in Bellefonte from Beaver Farm Lane to I-99’s southbound ramps.

In Patton Township, municipal manager Doug Erickson said the township and Toftrees developer Bob Poole have agreed to split the $3 million cost of engineering work to replace the present Waddle Road interchange with a new one.

The $4.5 million earmark would offset part of the total $17 million in construction costs, Erickson said, and the township would seek other federal grants and money from the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The Waddle Road interchange, a gateway to the Colonnade and Wal-Mart shopping centers and Toftrees residential neighborhoods, already bottlenecks during drive times, especially on Friday and Saturday evenings, when waiting cars back up onto I-99.

But more development in the area is in the works or is envisioned, from the Woodycrest Center retail stores with parking for 456 — between the two bigger shopping centers — to additional commercial and residential development in what is now the wooded area northwest of Toftrees.

“All future development will substantially increase traffic flow, delays and congestion to unacceptable levels,” Erickson said in a position paper supporting the earmark request.

The township went to the MPO to get the Waddle Road interchange project on the county organization’s transportation improvement plan, a criterion for Thompson’s support, Thompson aide Patrick Creighton said.

On Whitehall Road, which goes through three municipalities between South Atherton Street and West College Avenue, the state plans to build a center left-turn lane, bike lanes and sidewalks. Additional traffic lights are planned where Whitehall intersects with Blue Course Drive and with Research Drive.

The anticipated start of construction on Whitehall Road is spring 2011. Penn- DOT plans a public meeting on the project 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. June 2.

On U.S. Route 322 in Harris and Potter townships, a center left-turn lane is planned along some of the highway and the crossroads with Taylor Hill Road and Wagner Road, the site of several crashes, will be realigned. The intersection at Churchill Road will also be improved.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.