Another public meeting for State College Area Connector project is planned. What to know

The State College Area Connector is moving into the next step of the project with a public meeting scheduled for mid-August.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration on Wednesday announced the Notice of Intent to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project was published. The document is available online, www.PennDOT.pa.gov/SCAC , and includes background about the project and expected impacts identified during scoping activities.

During this next step in the process, the design team will develop the corridors that were identified in the Planning and Environmental Linkages Study into specific engineered alignments, a PennDOT spokesperson said.

With that, PennDOT will host a scoping meeting from 4-8 p.m. Aug. 15 at Mount Nittany Middle School, 656 Brandywine Drive, State College. The public is invited to attend and the design team will be available to answer questions. Anyone who needs special assistance or additional information regarding the meeting can email Eric Murnyack at emurnyack@pa.gov before Aug. 15.

Property owners within the project area will receive a written invitation to a meeting earlier in the day to view the same materials, PennDOT said in a press release.

During the meeting, the refined engineering alignments and detailed environmental data will be presented for the first time.

The PEL study was completed last August and helped inform planning decisions, streamline the project delivery process, and served as a public platform to discuss and prioritize transportation issues, according to PennDOT.

Three corridors were identified in the final PEL Study report: US 322-1S, US 322-10EX and US 322-5. Main line construction would span about eight miles. The first two options would include a connection with state Route 45. The third option would run the project south of the existing highway. All would bring the project through the U.S. Route 322 corridor at a cost that ranges from $432 million to $517 million.

The goal of the SCAC project — which former Gov. Tom Wolf said in 2019 could cost about $670 million — is to improve a 13-mile stretch of U.S. Route 322 from the Seven Mountains to State College. The project has been in the works for more than a decade.

The proposed schedule of the project shows the current phase, Preliminary Engineering/Environmental Studies (NEPA) will last until mid-2026. This phase ends with the selection of an alternative to advance into final design. That requires approval from the FHWA. Final engineering design is expected to take place between mid-2026 and the end of 2029.

Right-of-way acquisition will begin in 2029 through 2032. Constriction is anticipated to begin in 2030 and end in 2035.