Overnight work set to begin on major highway interchange project in Centre County
One lane of a major highway in Centre County is to be closed for overnight work beginning Sunday as construction continues on the $259 million project.
Pittsburgh-based contractor Trumbull Corp. is set to close the right lane of Interstate 80 eastbound beginning 6 p.m. Sunday, the state Department of Transportation said Thursday.
Work to reconstruct the eastbound shoulder is expected to continue until 6 a.m. and the schedule will repeat for the rest of the work week, PennDOT said. The work is expected to have a minimal effect on traffic during daylight hours. Interstate 99 will not be affected.
The construction is part of a project to build a direct, high-speed connection between the two interstates using ramps. Drivers will no longer need to use state Route 26 to access either interstate.
Construction began last summer and is to be completed by 2030. About $170 million of the project’s funding came from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure legislation that passed in 2021.
Building the new high-speed interchange is the second phase of a three-part project. The first involved the construction of a new, $52 million interchange that gave local drivers direct access between Route 26 and I-80. Construction began in 2020 and was completed in 2022.
The final phase is an $8.6 million project to reconstruct and widen Route 26. State College-based Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc. is the contractor on the project. Excavation work began in November and active construction is to begin in the 2025 construction season.
