`PennDOT gives local road plans top billing`

Local projects
Other area projects advanced or added include:

Widening the existing 2.5 mile, two-lane Route 18 from the Shenango Valley Mall to where the highway turns into four lanes is slated for the next four years at a cost of $16.5 million. This will complete the widening of Route 18, the gateway to the Shenango Valley from Interstate 80.
Engineering work to add ramps on the Route 60 and 318 interchange is slated for the next four years at a cost of $300,000. Construction work on the $3.8 million project is on the plan's third four-year phase.
Resurfacing of Highland Road in Hermitage at a cost of $4.2 million is slated for the next four years.
Engineering work to restore Broadway Avenue is slated during the next four years at a cost of $1.3 million. The construction phase is slated for second four-year phase at cost of $10 million.
Addition of a lane to Route 62, or the Shenango Valley Freeway, is slated for the next four years at cost of $2 million.
Relocation of Lamor Road through the area known as Pine Hollow is on the blueprint. Engineering work is slated during the next four years, followed by right-of-way work and then by construction in the third four-year phase.
Interstate 80, a $41 million project to restore I-80 in eastern section of Mercer County is slated for next four years.

By Robert B. Swift
Ottaway News Service

HARRISBURG -- The start of work to widen state Route 208 and completion of the state Route 18 widening project have top priority on PennDOT's new blueprint for transportation work.

The state Transportation Commission voted Thursday to spend $2 million on bridge engineering and right-of-way work during the next four years to ease traffic congestion on the stretch of Route 208 leading from Interstate 79 to the Prime Outlets at Grove City.

PennDOT plans to eventually replace the Route 208 bridge over I-79 at a cost of another $18 million. The current bridge is two lanes and it would be expanded to five lanes in order to accommodate traffic to the outlet mall.

The Route 208 upgrade is being sought by the Mercer County Planning Commission and Springfield Township to handle the traffic caused by 4.6 million shoppers who visit the outlet mall annually.

Local officials also want PennDOT to widen a six-mile stretch of Route 208 leading to the mall. However, this project wasn't placed on the plan approved here.

The commission, a policy arm of PennDOT, periodically updates a master blueprint for road, bridge, rail and airport improvements that are put on a 12-year cycle. High-visibility projects are put on the plan's first four year phase.

With a massive influx of federal and state highway revenues in the past two years, the commission was able to accommodate many requests from local officials to give priority to sought-after highway road improvements.

All told, Pennsylvania plans to spend $26.7 billion in state and federal monies on transportation projects during the next 12 years. This includes $8.4 million for highways and bridges, $1.7 billion for public transit, $870 million for aviation and $48 million for rail freight.

PennDOT Secretary Brad Mallory said the state benefits from the double impact of $400 million in new state transportation revenues each year due to the 1997 gas tax hike and almost 50 percent hike in federal aid due to the 1998 federal transportation act.

"Drivers around the state can see the impact in long-dormant projects taking shape and in the steadily improving pavement conditions," he added.

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Updated Jan. 29, 1999
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