In recent years, the biggest question regarding a Centre County road construction project has been — “Where is the new roadway going to be built?” PennDOT is saying we’re about 6 weeks away from finding out the latest options.
The State College Connector Project Area covers a wide region — about 70 square miles in plans to link Route 322 coming out of Seven Mountains with the Center of Centre County. The project has sparked debate in recent years, specifically on where PennDOT will locate a new highway. The Agriculture community is among those interested because there’s a lot of farmland in the project area. Dan Kniffen of the Centre Co. Farm Bureau saying: “Agriculture is not opposed to the road coming through because improvements to the infrastructure are vitally important. The thing we’re looking for is how can we potentially minimize the impact on these people.”
PennDOT could upgrade the current Route 322 from Potters Mills to Boalsburg, or select another route. We’re now told their next public meeting will probably be in October. Marla Fannin of PennDOT saying: “I believe we had said sometime in the Summer. Now we’re looking into the early Fall with the report. Right now we’re looking at an early October time frame, to have another round of Public Meetings.”
Whatever route is selected, PennDOT says construction on the state college connector probably wont begin until 2027, at the earliest.