After years of waiting, PennDOT to soon recommend final route for State College Area Connector
Pennsylvania’s transportation agency is set to announce next month which of the final three routes it recommends for a major highway construction project in southern Centre County.
The state Department of Transportation’s recommendation for the massive State College Area Connector project is expected to be made known in early May. PennDOT has scheduled a public meeting from 4-8 p.m. May 8 at Wyndham Garden State College, 310 Elks Club Road in Boalsburg. Meeting materials and exhibits are to be available online May 5.
Residents and business owners in the potential path of the project have waited years to learn of PennDOT’s recommendation, fearing it could upend their livelihoods or see their homes taken through eminent domain.
In addition to make its recommendation known, PennDOT said Friday that it will provide attendees with refined alignments for all three potential routes. Attendees may also ask questions and offer feedback.
Comments may also be submitted by email to emurnyack@pa.gov or lwoolridge@pa.gov, online at PennDOT.pa.gov/SCAC or by sending mail to PennDOT District 2-0, attention Eric Murnyack or Leigh Woolridge, 70 PennDOT Drive, Clearfield, PA 16830.
All three alignments would bring the project through the U.S. Route 322 corridor, creating an about eight-mile highway connecting the Mount Nittany Expressway to the newly constructed portion of Route 322 in Potters Mills Gap. Estimated costs range from $432 million to $517 million.
With regional growth projected in future decades, PennDOT has said the project will improve safety and reduce congestion by diverting about half of total traffic and nearly three-fourths of truck traffic from local roads.
The project will still be years away from realization once PennDOT’s recommendation is made public. A final engineering design is expected to take an additional 3 1/2 years, coming to an end in 2029.
Construction is slated to begin in 2030 and take about six years to complete.
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 12:56 PM.