Work Set for Temporary Exit: Trucks Carrying Acid Rock to Start Using Public Roads
By Mike Joseph, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.
Sep. 14–PATTON TOWNSHIP — Work on a temporary road to connect Interstate 99 and U.S. Route 322 at Skytop Mountain will begin next week, state Department of Transportation officials said Thursday.
New signs pointing the way to State College and Altoona have already gone up at long-completed but still closed I-99 interchange ramps around Port Matilda, though heavy concrete barriers keep the ramps closed for now.
Kevin Kline, PennDOT district executive, said department officials in Harrisburg approved his plan to open as many already-completed sections of I-99 as possible while the cleanup of acid-rock drainage advances.
Kline said the target date for the temporary opening is late autumn. He previously has said he hopes part of the new highway can be opened by Thanksgiving. The new four-lane highway will provide relief for thousands of commuters using two-lane U.S. Routes 220 and 322.
Ben LaParne, assistant district executive for construction, said that by the end of this week a pyritic rock spoil pile near the Skytop crest will have been moved truckload by truckload to a permanent disposal site three miles away. Crews are working 20 hours a day, six days a week.
The removal of that 100,000 cubic yards clears the way for a temporary road to be built to link the two northbound lanes of I-99 with Route 322 just below the Skytop crest.
Kline said it is not yet certain whether, at the start of the new traffic pattern, northbound motorists from the Altoona area heading toward State College will be able to get onto I-99 at Bald Eagle village in Blair County or will have to wait until they get to Port Matilda.
That depends on when the 9-mile section of I-99 between Bald Eagle village and Port Matilda is completed. The scheduled completion date is Dec. 5. PennDOT spokeswoman Marla Fannin said a newsletter next month will detail PennDOT’s plans.
“Everyone out in the field should be commended,” Kline told PennDOT and Department of Environmental Protection officials and others at a meeting Thursday. “It looks like things are going pretty well right now.”
The acid rocks — so called because reaction between iron sulfide, air and water produces metal-dissolving sulfuric acid and can devastate streams and groundwater — are being hauled to a 21-acre pit alongside I-99 a mile east of Port Matilda.
The rocks that have been removed from Skytop work so far have come from the same side of Route 322 as the already paved section of I-99 being used as the haul road, so traffic delays on Route 322 have not been extensive.
LaParne said Thursday that next week the major focus of removal will move to the other side of Route 322, so haul trucks will be crossing the highway during non-peak hours.
During the peak commuting hours, LaParne said, the haul trucks will not cross Route 322 and disrupt traffic. But PennDOT said that starting Sunday and continuing for the next several months, motorists should expect that:
u Route 322 traffic will be controlled by flaggers near Skytop.
u Hauling across Route 322 will occur six days a week, normally Monday through Saturday.
u Trucks will not haul on Fridays or Saturdays of Penn State home football weekends.
u No haul trucks will cross Route 322 from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
PennDOT said motorists in the Skytop area should drive though the area with caution, obey posted speed limits and remain alert for flaggers.
Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.
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