Get ready for another season of road work on Atherton Street in State College.
Work is scheduled to resume Monday for what is expected to be the final year of the current phase of Atherton Street construction between Curtin Road and just past Westerly Parkway, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Here’s what to expect over the next two weeks.
Feb. 26 – March 1
From Monday through Friday, crews will saw cut on South Atherton Street between West Irvin Avenue and Center Lane. Work will occur between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to avoid disrupting traffic to and from State College Area High School.
Flaggers will be in the roadway to provide traffic control, and traffic signals will be set to flash mode while crews occupy the Westerly Parkway intersection.
March 3-8
Starting at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 3, and continuing around the clock until 5 p.m. on Friday, March, 8, crews will be installing cross pipe in the South Atherton Street and Westerly Parkway intersection. Flaggers will provide traffic control and traffic signals will be set to flash mode.
On Monday, March 4, the contractor will install a waterline between White Course Drive and Railroad Avenue. Flaggers will provide traffic control during daylight hours.
“PennDOT and the contractor are pursuing this aggressive schedule because Penn State and State College Area High School are on spring break Monday, March 4, through Friday, March 8,” the department wrote in a news release. “The goal is to accomplish as much work during this window as possible to minimize traffic impacts on student commuters for the rest of the school year.”
HRI Inc. of State College is the contractor on the $30.7 million project, which got underway in 2022 and is expected to be completed this fall. The overall project includes roadway reconstruction, drainage improvements, water and sewer lines, concrete curbing, sidewalks and detectable warning surfaces, pavement markings and traffic signals and supports.
It’s the third phase of Atherton Street work originating from a 2010 review of the entire corridor that showed a need for repairs and upgrades, primarily for drainage. The first two phases covered North Atherton Street from its start near Gray’s Woods to Park Avenue.
PennDOT is in the preliminary planning stages of the next stage, which is tentatively expected to begin in 2029 and include South Atherton Street from Westerly Parkway to University Drive. It will involve work similar to the previous phases, and PennDOT also plans to study whether to implement a road diet for the 1-mile section, which could create a three-lane road by reducing the number of travel lanes from two to one in each direction and using the remaining width to create a center turn lane.
