‘It wasn’t an easy path.’ Multiyear, $96 million Potters Mills Gap project draws to a close
No delays are expected for drivers traveling through Potters Mills as work on the U.S. Route 322/Potters Mills Gap Project wraps up.
The $96 million Pennsylvania Department of Transportation project began in 2015 with the purpose of improving roadway safety and mitigating congestion over the mountain from the Centre/Mifflin county line to west of the Route 322/144 intersection in Potters Mills.
Crews wrapped up structural work — the third and final phase of the project — earlier this year.
“I think the primary thing we have attained here today is highway safety,” Glenn O. Hawbaker President Dan Hawbaker said Monday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Glenn O. Hawbaker served as the project contractor on phases two and three of the project.
The local access road between Route 144 and the western interchange opened earlier this month, and all four lanes — two eastbound and two westbound — on the new Route 322 alignment are open to traffic.
“From the beginning, the purpose of this project was to improve safety, reduce congestion and alleviate access concerns in this area,” PennDOT Deputy Secretary George McAuley Jr. said. “In particular, the project has allowed us to eliminate the difficult intersection of Route 322 and Route 144. Providing convenient, smooth and safe travel is always our goal, and this new alignment and the local access roads offer roadway users exactly that.”
The new design allows easy access for emergency vehicles and provides alternate routes for drivers in the event of a crash.
“Old Route 322, the new local access road, also features a roundabout that provides ease of access from the new 322,” McAuley said. “This geographic area is diverse landscape with homes, farms, villages, industrial sites and more. Many variables had to be taken into consideration in order to bring about the success we celebrate today. It wasn’t an easy path.”
PennDOT officials and crews were joined by state and county officials to celebrate the project, including Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte.
“As a former county coroner, unfortunately, I saw those tragedies too many times, and I think as lawmakers and policymakers, we have an inherent responsibility to do what we can for our communities,” Benninghoff said, thanking workers and contractors. “I have truly enjoyed ... watching the engineering of this, watching this put together. To me, this is a reflection of what we try to teach in our schools — why you want to learn to read, why you want to learn math, why you want to be able to understand increments of measure because you can make something. You can build something.”
The project will shut down for the winter by Thanksgiving. Remaining work on the local access road, located between Crowfield Road and Route 144, will resume in March 2021.
This story was originally published November 9, 2020 at 2:04 PM.
