Highly-anticipated, $259M project on Centre County’s top two highways set to start next week
Work on the highly-anticipated, $259 million Interstate 99/Interstate 80 interchange project is set to begin next week, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.
The project will use high-speed ramps to provide a nonstop connection between the two major highways in Boggs, Spring and Marion townships. Drivers will no longer have to use state Route 26 to access either highway.
Trumbull Corp., the Pittsburgh-based contracting company PennDOT selected to carry out the construction, will begin work on the project’s earliest stages on Sept. 4, according to a press release. That includes the reconstruction I-80’s shoulders and the widening of the highway both eastbound and westbound between mile markers 158 and 163.
This work will take place at night, with that section of I-80 reduced to one lane for about two months, according to the press release.
“(The construction) will reduce traffic to one lane between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. to mitigate traffic impacts while completing this work,” the press release reads. “PennDOT anticipates shoulder reconstruction and widening to continue for approximately two months.”
During this time, crews will be working during the daylight hours as well to complete to complete excavation work off of the roadway. PennDOT does not expect traffic impacts from the daytime work, but urged drivers to use caution in all work zones.
Further work on the project — which is expected to take until 2030 to complete — will include the building of the interchange, ten bridges, four retaining walls, five box culverts, seven sign structures and three changeable message boards.
In addition to that work, PennDOT will also be constructing new and rebuilding existing roadways and ramps, drainage improvements, installing intelligent transportation devices, guide rail and highway lighting, pavement marking and stream improvements.
About $170 million of the funding used to pay for the $259 million project comes from the $1 trillion federal infrastructure legislation that passed in 2021.
This high-speed interchange is the second part of a three-phase project. A $52 million interchange was completed in fall 2022 about two miles east of the existing I-80 Bellefonte exit.
The third phase of the project will come in 2026, when PennDOT reconstructs and widens state Route 26. Glenn O. Hawbaker was named the apparent low bidder for that phase of the project, with a bid of $8.6 million.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 12:34 PM.