PennDOT and local lawmakers are highlighting the start of construction season in Pennsylvania, including a long-awaited project that will connect two interstates in Bellefonte. This is the third and final phase of a project that was announced in 2018.
PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll was at the Department’s District 2 Construction preview in Bellefonte on Wednesday. He says a new “high-speed” interchange between I-80 and I-99 will cut down on congestion.
“Currently, if you're on 99, and you want to go east, you have to make a left hand turn. That backs up traffic in a significant way, and having a high speed access to 80 East from 99 solves the problem of the left hand turn," Carroll said.
Carroll said this project will also let drivers get onto I-99 from I-80 without having to deal with stop signs and red lights. Instead, drivers will go on a high speed ramp that connects the two interstates.
PennDOT District 2 Executive Thomas Prestash said this project was identified as a major need for the community years ago.
“Once completed, it'll enhance safety for motorists and provide local access connections to Route 26 and will have a significant impact on economic development," Prestash said.
PennDOT said work on this interchange project will start sometime in the summer, and will cost about $190 million dollars.
Sen. Wayne Langerholc said the project is a "tremendous" investment.
"It's not just the safety. It's not just road infrastructure, or improvements. But this also is investment in jobs and in wages, [in] family sustaining jobs that will be in this area that will bring with it all the ancillary benefits as the work is done, which then in turn will lead to more economic activity, [and] more economic development in the region," Langerholc said.
Secretary Carroll said there are no expected lane closures for the project, which is scheduled to last four or more years.
This week is also “National Work Zone Awareness Week.” PennDOT officials at Wednesday's event pointed to a crash that morning on I-83 south of Harrisburg that killed three construction workers.
Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, who also chairs the Transportation Committee, humanized those affected.
"These are private contractors. These are friends and family, neighbors. These are line painters. We all have a responsibility to slow down," Benninghoff said.
The box truck crash into the work site overnight on Wednesday brought the year's death toll for highway workers in Pennsylvania to 22.
