As the number of people and jobs in Centre County increases during the next 20 years, so will the traffic on area highways. And the state has already begun plans to combat this problem.

The population in Centre County will increase by 30,000 people between 1990 and 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centre County Planning Office. Employment growth is expected to follow a similar pattern, which will result in 17,800 new jobs in the Centre Region by 2015.

To deal with this increase, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation prepared a regional traffic study comparing the impact of seven projects by examining traffic patterns.

The seven plans are:

-- Maintaining the current roadway network.

-- Establishing a U.S. Route 220 alternative, which would be a four-lane, limited-access roadway roughly running parallel to existing U.S. Route 220 and existing U.S. Route 322. The new road would be between Bald Eagle and the Mount Nittany Expressway.

-- Relocating state Route 26, which would create a four-lane, limited-access roadway running parallel to existing state Route 26. PennDOT would construct the road between the Mount Nittany Expressway and the Bellefonte Bypass.

-- Improving state Route 144.

-- Improving U.S. Route 322, which would upgrade from two to four lanes.

-- PennDot is also considering combining some of the above projects.

While PennDOT will take no direct action based on the survey, planners and the public will use the information to show the effects and relationships among different projects, said Bert Kisner, a PennDOT engineer. Kisner presented the report to 100 residents at a meeting Thursday night.

According to the survey, if no changes are made, an estimated 2,700 trucks a day will use state Route 26 near Pleasant Gap by 2015. But if PennDOT expands Routes 26 and 220, the number of trucks on existing Route 26 will be 500 a day, according to the survey.

The survey found that if no changes are made, an estimated 25,100 vehicles a day will travel the existing Route 220 between Port Matilda and Martha Furnace by 2015. If PennDOT builds new roads, survey results indicate that the travel flow will drop to 4,400 a day.

For students, those projects may mean an easier drive into State College.

"State College is a nice place, but it's still tough to get there," Kisner said.

Amy Davis (sophomore-psychology) once spent five hours getting to State College from her home in Harrisburg. The ride normally takes an hour and a half.

"I live on (U.S. Route) 322 and it's really backed up at times because it only has one lane," she said.

Although it took Cathy Wittman (sophomore-biology) 16 hours to get to State College because a hose in the car had a hole, she usually has no problems traveling from her home in Rochester, N.Y.

"It's okay. I don't have any problems," said Wittman, who takes U.S. Route 220 to Interstate 80.

Two of the projects are in the final-decision stage. PennDOT may build a new U.S. Route 220 between Blair and Centre counties and relocate state Route 26 to link the Mount Nittany Expressway to Interstate 80.

Kisner said PennDOT has scheduled public hearings in February for both projects and he estimated construction would start in 1997.