State College’s Calder Way Project resumes. What to know about the project, traffic impact
State College’s long-awaited Calder Way Project is finally underway.
The first phase of the multi-year project, focused on turning Calder Way into a pedestrian-preferred corridor, was twice delayed — in July 2023 and then September 2023 — before restarting earlier this month. Once everything is finished, which is expected by 2027 or 2028, visitors and residents will be treated to a scenic route from High Street to Atherton Street for bicyclists and pedestrians — one with utility poles wrapped in ornamental covers, crisscrossed string lights, planted tree pits and stamped concrete to emphasize the arts.
The changes to Calder Way will be done in tandem with replacing aging utilities and infrastructure at an estimated cost of about $6.5 million, which the borough will not be fully responsible for. Utility companies will pay for their costs, and state/federal grants will cover other expenses.
Exploratory excavation, or the work to confirm the placement of existing utilities, restarted Jan. 2 and is set to finish Monday. Other preliminary work will then start Monday with sawcutting, and the real construction work is tentatively set to begin Jan. 22 and continue at least through June.
What’s happening Monday?
Phase 1 of the five-phase project will continue Monday with sawcutting on Calder Way, between McAllister and South Fraser streets. Flaggers will be on-hand to direct the flow of traffic and, because the road will remain open, traffic disruptions should be minimal.
The sawcutting should be finished by the end of next week, although plenty of other work remains.
Phase 1, expected to be completed by June’s end, will focus on utility replacement on Calder Way, between McAllister Street and South Fraser Street. Construction crews will install a new water main and service connections on three streets emanating from Calder Way — Kelly Alley, Humes Alley (from Calder to East Beaver Avenue) and McAllister Street (from Calder to East College Avenue). Crews are scheduled to begin work on McAllister Street on Jan. 22.
Other work planned for Phase 1 involves sanitary sewer, stormwater piping and gas mains, along with upgrading infrastructure like telecommunications and electrical utilities. By the full project’s end, the hope is for all utilities to be underground.
The borough has been open about the expected impacts of the project. There will be noise. There will be traffic changes. There will be inconveniences. Former council member Deanna Behring even described the project in June as “very disruptive” and as a “necessary evil.”
But borough officials have repeatedly stated that, despite the inconveniences, they believe the project will be worth the trouble in the end. Although local businesses around the area will bear the brunt of the construction impact, no businesses are expected to temporarily close during the project — and the borough has been working with those businesses for more than six months to minimize the disruption.
“Our message to the community is downtown is open for business and will continue to serve you throughout the process and into the future,” Lee Anne Jeffries, director the Downtown State College Improvement District, told the CDT last year.
Project overview
Every year through 2027, a new stretch of Calder Way — along with some nearby connected streets — will undergo construction and utility work. Near the project’s end, once utilities and infrastructure have been fully replaced on Calder Way, crews will install a bike lane for eastbound traffic, along with many of the streetscape improvements that defined the initial vision.
Phase 1 continues Monday. Here’s a look at the timeline of the other phases:
- Phase 2: Extends on Calder Way, from South Fraser Street to Atherton Street. The borough is working on the design for Phase 2 and plans to put it out to a bid later this year. It’s not yet known if construction will still start in 2024, although that was the project’s initial goal.
- Phase 3: Extends on Calder Way, from McAllister Street to South Garner Street. Work should still begin in 2025.
- Phase 4: Extends on Calder Way, from South Garner Street to Hetzel Street. Work is expected to begin in 2026.
- Phase 5: Extends on Calder Way, from Hetzel Street to High Street. Work is still scheduled to begin in 2027.
Although the project was twice delayed over the summer, the overall project timeline has not drastically changed. The initial delay — from July to September — happened due to supply-chain issues, and another delay occurred, from September to January 2024, because of those issues and concerns that starting construction in September could negatively impact more businesses than originally believed.
