PHILADELPHIA – The Potters Mills Gap Transportation Project is the winner of a 2015 Environmental Excellence Award from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
The awards honor innovative efforts to preserve the environment while enhancing America’s highways. Consulting firm McCormick Taylor and PennDOT were recognized for streamlining the environmental decision-making process to achieve a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) from FHWA in just 16 months.
The Potters Mills Gap Transportation Project is a large-scale safety and operational improvement effort along 3.75 miles of Route 322 in Potter Township, Centre County.
Beginning west of the Route 322 and Route 144 intersection and extending east to the Centre County/Mifflin County line, the project falls in an area known as “Potters Mills Gap,” formed by the Triester and Kohler Mountains.
The area exhibits heavy motorist delays and a crash history in excess of the statewide average. Now a priority project under Pennsylvania’s Act 89, improvements consist of multiple roadway and structure upgrades—including the installation of two full interchanges—to alleviate safety, congestion and access concerns, while enhancing and preserving environmental and historic resources.
The project has a $105 million construction cost and presents complex environmental issues. McCormick Taylor and PennDOT utilized a number of innovative approaches to collaborate with environmental agencies and the public, including online collaboration tools, context sensitive design features and creative mitigation strategies to produce concise, high-quality environmental documents.
By applying these measures, project stakeholders were able to anticipate and address environmental concerns, avoiding delays and reducing project costs along the way. The issuance of a FONSI in July 2014 has allowed this important project to move forward as planned.
On the success of Potters Mills Gap, PennDOT District 2-0’s Design Services Engineer Steven Fantechi said, “PennDOT’s values of safety, modernization, customer service and communication were met with this project. We recognize the hard work of the project team and also the drive and cooperation that lead the team to the innovative way to compress the schedule, coordinate effectively with environmental agencies and meet the goals of the project.”