Expanded construction schedule coming to Potters Mills Gap project

Get ready to see more action when traveling on U.S. Route 322. Work on the Potters Mills Gap project will soon increase to six days a week, and night work is on the horizon.

Crews are currently working Monday-Friday, but after Memorial Day, roadwork will expand to Saturdays, state Department of Transportation press officer Marla Fannin said.

The changes are being made to help speed up the third and final phase of the Route 322/Potters Mills Gap project, which will reconstruct Route 322 from Sand Mountain Road to Potters Mills with a four-lane extension, and build a Route 322/Route 144 intersection that will be a part of the local access road.

"There’s just a lot of work to do and it’s a tight schedule, so we have to work six days a week," said Greg Sidorick, PennDOT construction manager.

In about a month, Sidorick said crews will begin working on parts of the project at night. However, most of the work on the road itself will continue to take place during the day due to how dangerous it would be to move equipment around at night on the tight, steep portion of the work zone, he said.

There will likely be two 12-hour shifts: 6 a.m.-6 p.m. and 6 p.m.-6 a.m. Sidorick said they try to wait until 8 or 9 a.m. to stop traffic, if needed, and get off the road by 3 p.m.

Crews are about to begin drainage work and some utility relocation. They're also excavating the area before work on some local access roads can get underway.

In late July or early August, construction will start on a new bridge over Potter Run that will connect to state Route 2015, a local access road that will run parallel to Route 322.

A new traffic pattern will go into effect on Wednesday. Westbound motorists will make use of a crossover through the project area from Decker Valley Road to Sand Mountain Road in Potter Township, as previously reported. Instead of the typical two lanes in each direction, just one lane will be available for each direction of traffic. The lane restrictions will last through the fall.

During major local events, such as the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, Penn State student move-in and home football games, construction crews will not be stopping traffic, Sidorick said.

The project, which is meant to improve safety and reduce congestion, started in 2015 with the construction of a new bridge at Sand Mountain Road. Phase two, which wrapped up in January with the tree removal along the two-lane section of the highway, created the new Sand Mountain Road local interchange.

Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc, of State College, was awarded the $82,374,064 bid for the final phase in March. The project is estimated to be completed by October 2021, Sidorick said.

Up-to-date information on the project, including detours and delays, can be found at at PennDOT's interactive website. Real-time updates on detours and delays can also be found at www.511PA.com, or by following @511PAStateColl on Twitter or by calling 511.

This story was originally published May 21, 2018 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Expanded construction schedule coming to Potters Mills Gap project."