Work is continuing this week on one of Centre County’s busiest roadways that travels through the heart of State College.
Officials say it’s the latest phase of a project that is expected to take months to complete.
Another detour for motorists is in place until the end of the week on Atherton Street, located between College and Beaver Avenues.
“One of the biggest issues we have with a detour like this, and Beaver Avenue, is the truck traffic. A car can get in pretty deep and there’s a way around. A lot of its local, so most of the locals can get around pretty easily.”
PennDOT is timing the latest shutdown of this stretch of Atherton with Penn State’s spring break, as a lot of students and others are out of town.
The Atherton corridor through the Centre region has been a construction zone for years, and the downtown area is far more than just a repaving project.
“There are so many lines under here. The new water lines we are putting in are 12 feet in the ground. What you run into is drainpipes and sewer line pipes that we put in last year. They all have to work in conjunction.”
This phase of the Atherton Street work, which began last year, is expected to be wrapped up in the fall of 2024, at a cost of just over $30 million.