Centre County planner leaves ‘tremendous impact’ after more than 30 years of projects
Looking back at transportation projects throughout the Centre Region and Centre County during the last 30 years, one person — mostly behind the scenes — has had a hand in many of them.
Tom Zilla, principal transportation planner for the Centre County Metropolitan Planning Organization, is retiring Friday after nearly 34 years with the CCMPO. He and the rest of the office provide staff support to the Metropolitan Planning Organization and work as a liaison between different levels of government that are involved in transportation planning. Mainly, they prioritize improvements and find a way to fund them, he said.
In Centre County, that has meant a number of transformative projects that have improved lives and transportation safety.
A ‘tremendous impact’ on travel
Zilla has been involved in many of the major transportation projects in Centre County, including the Interstate 99 construction project in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“He’s had tremendous impact on how Centre County folks travel around the county,” Marcella Hoffman, office manager for the Centre Regional Planning Agency, wrote in an email.
Jim May, planning director for CCMPO, spoke of Zilla’s career and accomplishments before the Centre Region Council of Governments adopted a resolution of commendation for Zilla on Monday. He said Zilla had a busy career “making transportation safer, better and more convenient in Centre County.”
“For Tom, I think some of the stuff he did was just his normal way of working,” May said. “But for some of us and myself included, it’s just really special to work with somebody who seems to have such a great sense of well-being and kindness, compassion for others.”
Zilla has been passionate about his work, May said. He has worked hard planning for projects and applying for funding, getting the projects through the review process and getting them approved. It’s an incredibly complex process, May said, but Zilla has been “excellent” at it.
He helped with planning for I-99 coming up from Altoona, the I-99 and I-80 interchange and more recently has been working on the State College Area Connector project, May said.
The resolution notes other “consequential projects” Zilla has been involved in over the years: the Warner Boulevard Improvement Project in Harris Township, the Atherton Street reconstruction project in Patton and Ferguson townships, and Whitehall Road improvements in State College Borough, College Township and Ferguson Township.
May talked about Zilla’s ability to build relationships, too. Zilla said he’s proud that there is a handful of Centre County residents who will email or call him to get a status report or project update on different transportation projects.
“One of the things that I’ve tried to do ... is to maintain a relationship on that level so that if people call in, they can get information. I don’t always have information for them. I don’t always have what they want to hear. But I try to be pretty straightforward with them and telling them that, even if it’s ‘I don’t know,’” Zilla said. If he doesn’t know, he can still tell them about the process and how to participate.
During Tuesday’s Centre County Commissioners meeting, Commissioner Michael Pipe said the board would be presenting Zilla a certificate of recognition.
“Tom has been an amazing asset to transportation needs, community development, and also somebody who is just a ray of sunshine and really does make a positive impact on all that he comes across,” Pipe said. “...Tom is certainly a thoughtful, selfless individual who has really demonstrated respect and working together, (he’s) really a model for how we can live our lives.”
Projects large and small
The $96 million state Route 322/Potters Mills Gap project and I-99, the biggest highway project the county has had for many years, stick out in Zilla’s mind as most memorable. But he also talked about important community projects, like Route 322 Railroad Street bypass in Philipsburg and Blue Course Drive on the west side of State College. A lot of the projects are driven by safety concerns, he said.
“Safety has clearly been the driving factor in a lot of these projects. In other areas sometimes you have projects developed for economic development reasons, ... but the vast majority of our projects here in Centre County have been safety related,” Zilla said.
He also helped plan and program funds for a number of intersections in Centre County, some of which are under construction today, like the intersection of Route 26 and Route 45 in Ferguson Township. Another one is Route 64 and 550 in Walker Township.
“That one has taken — I mean, we have pushed for years and years and years and years and years to get that one funded and to get done. So I’m really thrilled,” Zilla said.
“We’ve had numerous fatalities in Zion so getting that done was really a high priority.”
Zilla talked about a smaller project years ago on Route 55 and Fillmore Road in Benner Township. Though it wasn’t a major highway project, it stood out to Zilla because it brought together many different entities that made it a priority and got it funded.
“It’s down below the University Park Airport, there’s a little white church that sits on one of the corners. At one time, Route 550 had a big hump in the road right at the intersection. So that project took out the hump and widened out some of the approaches so that you can see better while getting out of that intersection,” Zilla said.
Changes over the years
A lot of things have changed since he started in 1988. He has colored pencils sitting on his desk because “back in the day,” they had to color maps by hand. Now that’s produced by geographic information systems.
“When you stop and think about 30 years, how I always think about it was when I came here in 1988, what’s 30 years back was 1958,” Zilla said. “So you think about change in that perspective, that helps you give a little bit of perspective to all that’s going on.”
He recalled when turning lanes were added to major roads throughout State College, like on East College Avenue heading toward the Nittany Mall. Around that time frame, the Science Park Road intersection we know today was actually two different intersections, what transportation people call a “Y-intersection.” As part of adding turning lanes, the Science Park Road intersection was put in one location.
“They were very, very difficult to get in and out of and we had a lot of crashes and even a couple of fatalities. So putting it into one location and putting a signal there has made a big difference. So that was another big safety improvement and it came along with adding the turning lanes through the corridor, as well,” Zilla said. “There really have been some significant projects that have gone on, on the roadway side.”
The biggest change Zilla’s seen in transportation is technology. PennDOT puts out a lot of information and data on travel patterns, traffic conditions, traffic signals and roadway conditions, and it’s all available on a GIS based computer program.
“A lot of that information existed back then but it was in literally reams of paper. I could have a two inch thick … folder back here that showed all of the locations in Centre County and what all the crash information was for those high crash locations. Whereas a lot of that’s just available through the computer now and mapped with data attached to it. So technology is amazing,” he said.
There is one thing Zilla doesn’t see changing in the future, though.
“The funding shortage. There’s never going to be enough funding to do all the things that people would love to do to address needs in terms of transportation. So I think that will be an ongoing challenge,” he said.
As he enters retirement, Zilla said he has some family obligations he wants to tend to and also wants work on his “home to-do list,” which he says is quite lengthy. Eventually he hopes to participate in some volunteer opportunities to give back to the community.
“But family’s going to be first,” he said.
