Potters Mills project nearing completion

CENTRE CO, Pa (WJAC) — Despite road construction projects being slowed statewide due to PennDOT budget cutbacks, one large scale project in Centre County is finally nearing completion.

The Route 322 project near Potters Mills has been extensive, one of the largest in Centre County history.

After five years of planning and construction, at costs of more than $80 million, the good news for motorists is that PennDOT says they are only a few months away from completion.

Motorists can now see how the realignment of Route 322, coming out of the seven mountains area and into Potters Mills, has taken shape.

One reason for the lengthy construction schedule is the highway’s new elevations for the four lanes, which meant moving massive boulders and earth off the nearby mountain sides.

PennDOT says the eastern portion of the Route 322 project is complete, and as for the entire project itself, it’s about 85 percent done.

“We'll have motorists on here by the end of the construction season, by the end of the year. Now we still have work to do this fall and the spring on the local access.”

The current Route 322 will remain open for local traffic, even once the construction is completed near Potters Mills.

The priority will then be to widen the roadway and make the remaining portion of 322, from Potters Mills to Boalsburg, into a four-lane highway.

That project is on the drawing board for PennDOT, with no word on when construction could begin.

Anyone who has traveled to Penn State football games from Harrisburg, or from anywhere out east, knows how congested this section of 322 becomes when it changes from four lanes to two lanes.

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