Gatesburg Road gets funds for extension

Mike Joseph

FERGUSON TOWNSHIP — The township has captured a $3 million state grant to extend Old Gatesburg Road from Science Park Road to Blue Course Drive.

The money, the full amount applied for by the township, is the 80 percent state match of the estimated $3.7 million it will take to extend the two-lane road for the additional three-fourths of a mile. The township pays the rest.

The new township road will go through land owned by John Imbt that is in the planning stages for development into a mixed-use commercial and residential neighborhood. A traffic study is now in the works, and the township expects a master plan next month.

The undeveloped land north of the Imbt tract between Science Park Road and Blue Course Drive is Circleville Farm, for which development plans are less advanced.

Township public works director David Modricker said the Old Gatesburg Road extension is scheduled to be bid early next year and completed by year’s end.

The $3 million award to Ferguson was one of 80 transportation projects valued in all at $76 million announced across the state by Gov. Ed Rendell in the Pennsylvania Community Transportation Initiative and Safe Rides to Schools programs.

The award was one of four projects awarded in a 12-county central region of the state. The other three awards were valued in all at $1 million. The Ferguson project is

one of 12 projects in Centre County that were candidates for PCTI money, according to a Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization list of candidate projects.

The other Centre County projects, according to the MPO list, included a $3.4 million application from State College for downtown streetlights and expansion, a $2 million application from Philipsburg for a downtown streetscape project, $2 million for a rail-trail project in Benner and Spring townships, and Penn State applications for a Millbrook Marsh bikeway and a University Park Airport control tower valued together at $3.8 million.

Modricker, asked to explain the township’s success, said the township, in applying five months ago, got letters of support from state Sen. Jake Corman, RBenner Township, and state Reps. Scott Conklin, D-Rush Township, and Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven.

He said the program requirements included a con-text- sensitive design, quality-of- life improvements, town center development and an enhanced road network.

“As soon as I heard what the criteria were for the grant, I immediately thought of Old Gatesburg Road,” he said. “It just fit with everything they were looking for.”

PennDOT spokesman Rich Kirkpatrick said the projects were picked on merit. “Ferguson Township had a good Smart Transportation project and that was why they were picked,” he said.

Modricker said plans for the new road include at least one bus stop with a pulloff area and shelter. A sidewalk will parallel the road on one side and an off-lane bike path on the other. Curbing and a road spur for the extension were built into Blue Course Drive during construction six years ago.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.