State officials recently announced that after four years of construction delays, PennDOT will open all four lanes of local highway Interstate 99 in less than three weeks.
"We will open all four lanes of I-99 to traffic on Nov. 25," Marla Fannin, press officer for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) district 2, said.
The opening of all four lanes of I-99 will allow traffic heading southbound from State College to stay on I-99.
Fannin said before this, drivers going toward Altoona and beyond from Innovation Park had to follow I-99 onto U.S. Route 322, toward Port Matilda, and then merge back onto I-99 southbound.
With all four lanes now open, drivers can make a straight drive from Innovation Park to Altoona without leaving the highway.
"Someone traveling this way can expect to save about 15 to 20 minutes of driving time," Fannin said. "There's no more stop-and-go traffic. Now there is two clear lanes."
The opening of all four lanes also comes in time for the heavy Thanksgiving traffic the area typically receives. Though the Nov. 25 opening date wasn't specifically chosen to serve that purpose, it will help alleviate the congestion on the highway come Thanksgiving, Fannin said.
"For the most part we had weather on our side," Fannin said. "That allowed us to open all the lanes prior to the Thanksgiving traffic which will certainly be a significant help to holiday drivers."
After the highway is opened, PennDOT and the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will continue to monitor the water alongside the highway to ensure it is safe, Fannin said.
During original construction in 2003, workers encountered pyrite, also known as "fool's gold" during the excavation, which caused construction to be set back for an extended period of time, Fannin said.
Pyrite glitters and looks like gold, but when exposed to air and water it causes an acidic reaction that can affect the local water supply, Fannin said.
"We had to stop and work with the state's DEP to address that problem," Fannin said.
PennDOT workers removed all the pyretic material they could or covered the material to avoid exposure, Fannin added.
She said when the lanes open, PennDOT will be happy to have reached the end of the construction phase along I-99 and only minor details remain.
The original plan for the highway -- which covers a 30-mile stretch through Centre County, from Bald Eagle on the northeastern Blair County line to I-80 east of Bellefonte, where Spring and Marion townships meet -- included having four lanes of traffic, Fannin said.
