New route to ease traffic congestion

The Digital Collegian - Published independently by students at Penn State

[ Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 ]

By Kristin Casale

Collegian Staff Writer

The new section of Blue Course Drive, a four-lane road linking North Atherton Street and West College Avenue, will open to traffic on Nov. 24 in the late afternoon.

Dave Modricker, Ferguson Township public works director, said the route would be officially called Blue Course Drive.

The project has been known as the Western Inner Loop throughout its construction, said Mark Kunkle, Ferguson Township manager.

Modricker added that the ribbon-cutting ceremony would be held on Nov. 24 at 10:00 a.m. The road will open after township workers clean up the remnants of the ceremony and make sure all traffic signals are operational.

GRAPHIC: Sara Parris/Collegian

Modricker said the route would empty onto Clinton Avenue. Overhead street signs would be labeled Blue Course Drive.

About 5,000 to 15,000 vehicles are expected on opening day, and as traffic patterns change, 50,000 vehicles per day are projected to use the road, Modricker said.

The road is opening due to traffic problems in Ferguson Township and State College Borough, Modricker said. The road would also reroute traffic from Corl Street, part of which will close in the near future.

"It is supposed to help with traffic congestion in State College and is designed to alleviate that," Modricker said.

The township presented plans to the State Transportation Commission in 1993, but the expansion planning has been in development for the last 20 years, he said.

Ferguson Township ordered the environmental assessments, traffic studies, design and sources of funding.

Bike paths and landscaping have also been added to the area.

The road was originally scheduled to open in September, but unexpected problems, such as utility conflict, relocations, the addition of storm water management facilities and the weather caused a delay, Modricker said.

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