State plans to connect Seven Mountains with State College

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After a more than 15-year delay, work is scheduled to begin on a project to connect the Seven Mountains area to the greater State College area.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) will spend $5 million on preliminary engineering. The state will work with local communities, businesses, and organizations through the design, utilities, and right-of-way phases.

“This connection has been a significant local priority for some time and was studied in detail but was unfortunately shelved in 2004 due to lack of federal funding,” Gov. Tom Wolf said Thursday. “So, in the absence of federal investments that we were all promised, today, I’m happy to announce that we are taking steps to make a long-awaited connection project a reality.”

Construction is expected to begin in 2027.

The Seven Mountains-State College project coincides with the Potters Mills Gap project on Route 322. Phases one and two are completed. The $82.3 million phrase three will open to traffic in late 2020.

U.S. 322 will be reconstructed from Potters Mills to Sand Mountain Road.

In 2017, PennDOT updated its environmental, traffic, and safety data for Route 322, Route 144 and Route 45.

Truck traffic on the routes increased by 37 percent between 1999 and 2016.