Road opening postponed

Centre Daily Times

December 01, 2007

PATTON TOWNSHIP -- Interstate 99 between Bald Eagle and Skytop will not open as expected by Tuesday because signs for the temporary roadway and ramp at the Skytop section still need to be produced and installed, the state Department of Transportation said Friday.

PennDOT said it has set a new target date between Dec. 12 and Dec. 19 to open the northbound lanes of I-99 from Bald Eagle to Skytop and the southbound lanes from Port Matilda to Bald Eagle.

Marla Fannin, PennDOT spokeswoman, said the nine-mile I-99 section between Bald Eagle and Port Matilda under contract to New Enterprise Stone & Lime is expected to be completed by the Dec. 4 contract date.

But at the new makeshift interchange between I-99 and U.S. Route 322 at Skytop, where temporary short roads have been built and their lines painted, 'quite a few' signs are still lacking and 'it just isn't safe' to open the merger without them.

'Once the signs come, if we get bad weather, that could really slow down the installation,' Fannin said. 'We'll open those lanes as early as we can.'

Friday's announcement means that thousands of commuters, truckers and local residents will have to wait a little longer before about $200 million in a new highway asset, much of it long completed, will be put to use.

When the new I-99 lanes do open, they are expected to make commutes from the Altoona and Philipsburg areas to the State College area safer and 10 minutes faster than they have been on current U.S. Routes 220 and 322.

The opening will extend the reach of I-99 northbound by 14 miles -- from where the four-lane highway now stops at Bald Eagle village in Blair County to just below the Skytop Mountain crest on the State College side.

Motorists heading from the Altoona area toward State College will get a nonstop drive to Skytop and beyond, bypassing two current traffic-light bottlenecks in Bald Eagle and Port Matilda.

The new road also will bypass the dangerous two-lane U.S. Route 220 itself and give motorists a panoramic view of Bald Eagle Valley from the perspective of the ridge instead of the valley floor.

Motorists from the Philipsburg area heading toward State College will get on I-99 at the Port Matilda interchange, just before they get into the small borough.

Two lanes of I-99 northbound traffic will narrow to one and then shift onto the single eastbound lane of U.S. Route 322 just below the Skytop crest. Speed-limit reductions will accompany the two-lane to one-lane merge.

PennDOT will discourage all but motorists living nearby from using Route 322 eastbound from Martha Furnace over Skytop Mountain by putting a stop sign where that roads meets I-99 northbound. This point, just below the Skytop crest, is a potential bottleneck in the new traffic plan.

PennDOT has posted signs, still veiled, on the Route 322 eastbound ascent of Skytop that say: 'Road closed ahead except local traffic.'

Motorists heading toward Altoona from State College will stay on westbound U.S. Route 322 to Port Matilda. Altoona-bound motorists can get on I-99 at Port Matilda after making a right-hand turn at the Port Matilda light onto Route 322 to the interstate's on-ramp. Philipsburg-bound motorists will stay on Route 322.

Southbound motorists can't get on I-99 at Skytop because the southbound lanes are being used by trucks hauling sulfur-bearing rocks to a disposal site three miles down the I-99 corridor, part of an ongoing environmental cleanup.

Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.

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