What’s new with the State College Area Connector project? Residents to soon hear updates
Two upcoming meetings will give residents the chance to hear updates about the State College Area Connector Planning and Environmental Linkage Study in southern Centre County.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, along with the Federal Highway Administration, will host meetings from 3-8 p.m. April 5 and 6 to update residents on the data collection efforts, traffic analyses, and Build Alternative corridor refinements. The meetings will be held at the Calvary Church, 150 Harvest Fields Drive, Boalsburg on April 5 and at the Centre Hall Fire Station, 134 N. Witmer Ave., Centre Hall, on April 6.
Information on the project can also be viewed online at www.penndot.gov/scac. The information presented at the meetings will be the same both days and people can go to the meeting at any point within the meeting hours.
The goal of the SCAC project — which Gov. Tom Wolf said in 2019 could cost about $670 million — is to improve a 13-mile stretch of U.S. Route 322 from the Seven Mountains to State College. The project has been in the works for more than a decade.
The SCAC initial study area encompasses 70 square miles of southern Centre County, including portions of Potter, Spring, Harris, College and Benner townships, and Centre Hall Borough. It identified that high-peak hour traffic volumes cause congestion on U.S. Route 322 and state Routes 45 and 144 roadways and intersections, according to an August 2021 PennDOT newsletter. The roadway configurations and traffic conditions that currently exist contribute to safety concerns, it states, and the roadway network lacks continuity.
Public information meetings on the project were first held in September. Harris Township supervisors urged residents to voice concerns to PennDOT about future alignments along Route 322, which they said would remove all industrial zoned property.
As part of the process, PennDOT initiated a PEL Study that will help inform planning decisions and streamline the project delivery process, according to PennDOT. The results of the study will identify transportation projects and alternatives that can move forward into the National Environmental Policy Act process and preliminary engineering, according to the project’s website.
Transportation projects advance through five phases before they are able to be used by the traveling public, PennDOT’s website states. The steps include the PEL study, preliminary engineering/environmental studies, the final engineering design right-of-way acquisition and construction. Construction may not begin until 2027 and won’t be completed for several years after.
