The stretch of Interstate 322 between Boalsburg and Potters Mills in Centre County has seen many crashes with yet another, happening last Thursday involving a tractor trailer.
The missing link, as that area is referred to is also a large part of Penndot’s State College Connector Project.
Dylan Huberman spoke to officials about the area’s crash history and where things go from here, Dylan?
Jess, Penndot says there have been 117 crashes resulting in 44 injuries and two deaths since 2017.
Penndot says they’ve already added several safety features to this stretch of road recently.
“Deployed and installed center line and edge line rumble strips…this will certainly help the run-off-road or crossover type crashes. We’ve also deployed a tailgating dot treatment along this corridor.”
But Collins says the past five years of crash data are being looked at with recency bias
“We have not seen an uptick in crashes in the past five years.”
As for any physical changes to the road, the connector project would need to advance out of the study stage but Penndot knows they only get one crack at changing traffic patterns.
“We don’t want to make any mistakes, so we’re evaluating everything at a high level basis so that we can make the best decision based on all the current data that we have.”
So, where does it stand now?
“Currently we’re reviewing all the questions we got from the last public meeting, and we’re working on screening all the alternative corridors so we can narrow it down to go into the next phase of the study.”
Ultimately, Collins says drivers shouldn’t be afraid of this road.
“They shouldn’t feel unsafe. As long as the driver is going to do what they need to do and drive defensively, and watch out for other drivers, they should feel very safe on this corridor.”
