The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation on Wednesday released the final Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) report for the State College Area Connector (SCAC) study identifying the build alternatives that will advance to the next phase of the process.
PennDOT conducted the study with the Federal Highway Administration to evaluate existing and projected transportation needs within a 70-square-mile area in the U.S. Route 322, state Route 45 and state route 144 corridor. Traffic volumes are expected to increase by more than 30% over 30 years, and the existing road network and configurations cause safety concerns and lack continuity, according to the 124-page study.
The three recommended build alternatives to improve the connection from the Seven Mountains area of Route 322 into the State College area and Interstates 99 and 80 will advance into the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and preliminary engineering. They are unchanged from the draft study released in February.
The three options — US 322-1OEX, US 322-1S and US 322-5 — each would connect U.S. 322 at the Mt. Nittany Expressway in Boalsburg and US 322 at Potters Mills Gap, where a four-lane section of highway was completed in 2021. The link would essentially complete a four-lane highway from Harrisburg to State College and beyond.
Both US 322-1OEX and US 322-1S would have an interchange with a connector road between Route 45 and U.S. 322. All three would have service roads connecting to the local road network and would connect to the newly constructed U.S. 322/PA 144 interchange at Potters Mills Gap.
Each build alternative is about 8 miles long and is projected to divert nearly 53% of the total traffic and 73% of truck traffic from the local road network. Estimated costs range from $432 million and $517 million.
Prior to the draft report’s release alternatives in the Route 144 corridor routes that would have gone over Centre Hall Mountain, as well as upgrading the existing Route 322 in the study area, were eliminated.
“Moving forward, PennDOT expects to continue performing field verification of environmental features within the new study area,” according to a PennDOT news release. “As part of the NEPA phase, it will refine alternative corridors to minimize impacts. It will also update traffic models to refine alignment and interchange configuration.”
PennDOT expects to schedule a public meeting to present the refinements to the alignments in late spring of 2024.
Harris Township supervisors and property owners in the proposed corridor have raised concerns about the potential alignments, stating the homes and longtime family farms may be lost, property values damaged and the rural character of the area forever altered. The potential connector between Route 45 and U.S. 322 has raised worries about safety issues, pollution, damage to residential areas and Route 45 being ill-equipped to handle increased traffic.
PennDOT has not identified any properties for acquisition, according to the SCAC website.
“Should a property be required for any transportation project, PennDOT would contact individual property owners directly following the preliminary engineering/environmental study phase of the project and during the final design stage of the project,” the site states.
The NEPA process and preliminary engineering represent the second of five phases for advancing a transportation project. NEPA mandates that agencies “consider the potential environmental consequences of their proposals, document the analysis and make this information available to the public for comment prior to implementation,” according to the Federal Highway Administration.
It will be followed final engineering design, right-of-way acquisition and construction.
After being shelved for more than 15 years, Gov. Tom Wolf committed to funding the project in 2019. Construction is not expected to begin until 2028 and will take about five years to complete.
Detailed information about the State College Area Connector Project is at PennDOT.pa.gov/SCAC.
