After five years of research and an estimated $7.2 million, the South Central Centre County Transportation Study (SCCCTS) was stopped by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) on Tuesday due to lack of state funds.

The purpose of the SCCCTS was to determine the best location, out of eight or nine proposed options, to build a four-lane highway that would allow motorists to get through the area more efficiently, Harris Township Manager Kristin Clark said.

"We were trying to figure out the best way to get trucks through without traveling on a dangerous two-way highway," she said.

The proposed four-lane highway would have linked Route 322 from below Potters Mill road and lead to Interstate 99, Clark said.

According to a press release from PennDOT's main office, a more cost-effective plan will be initiated instead of wasting money on smaller survey and construction projects.

The Centre Region PennDOT branch office was unable to comment on the issue and phone calls to PennDOT's Harrisburg office were not returned.

Kristi Haney (sophomore-media studies) said she thinks that the trucks are a hazard to the local traffic on the road.

"I never like traveling near big trucks," she said. "The size of [Route 322] makes me feel trapped if there is one in front of me or behind me."

Haney also said she notices increased traffic during football weekends and when students are traveling home during holidays. "Every time I go home I notice there are more cars on the road. It's scary," she said.

Clark said that through-traffic mixed with the local traffic on the two-lane Route 322 highway is dangerous for all motorists involved.

The Centre Region Council of Governments (COG) is comprised of Harris, Ferguson, Patton, Halfmoon and College townships, and State College Borough. COG submitted plans for transportation improvement programs that were putting too many demands on state resources, said Stever Suder, director of the Centre Region Planning Agency.

"There were more funds requested than were available," he said. "There were 26 projects in the state that were stopped."

Another local project included in that total is Corridor O, which would have connected Port Matilda directly to Interstate 80, Clark said. "They were much further along than we were. They already had their environmental impact assessment completed," she said.

Suder said it might be another 10 years before the project is started again.

"We give it until 2014. It is not in the foreseeable future," he said.

Clark said the highway might never be built because there may never be enough funds in the transportation budget for all of the projects.

"Instead of waiting until we got as far along as some of the other projects, they decided to pull the plug now," she said.

Clark added that the cessation of the project came at the right time because meetings were to be held on April 13 and 14 by the Citizens Advisory Committee to choose the final site. The meeting was canceled indefinitely. "The budget was not known because the final site was not chosen. Only the study itself was being funded by the state," she said.

Suder said the main reason the project was being pushed was to find a way to help make travel easier with the increasing population in the area.

"We have the tools available to determine the type and location of population growth," he said. "If the highway is ever built, it will make a big difference in moving people."