Updated Sept. 24, 2024
A section of Jacksonville Road near Bellefonte will be closed for nearly six years starting this month as work begins on the new high-speed interchange between Interstates 80 and 99.
The road in Spring Township will be closed between Lyonstown Road and the I-99 interchange beginning Wednesday, Sept. 25, according to PennDOT. Jacksonville Road will not be accessible from I-99 at the turn near mile marker 85.
Traffic instead will take exit 83/Zion-Bellefonte, Zion Road/East Bishop Street westbound to the intersection of North Wilson Street and North Wilson Street to Jacksonville Road
The detour will allow homeowners along Jacksonville Road to access their properties and patrons to access the following establishments:
- Advance Overhead Garage Door, 188 Jacksonville Road.
- First Baptist Church of Bellefonte, 539 Jacksonville Road.
- Johnstonbaugh Family Day Care, 120 Wiltshire Drive.
- Rooted Farmstead, 138 Scott Avenue.
- Scott’s Roasting, 120 Sylvan Acres Lane.
- Wag Your Tail Grooming, 321 Wiltshire Drive.
The parking area on Jacksonville Road near I-99 also will be closed.
According to PennDOT, the closure will allow the contractor on the interchange project “to conduct large earth moving operations.”
The closure is expected to remain in place until the summer of 2030.
Trumbull Corporation of Pittsburgh is the contractor for the $259 million project, which will create a direct connection between I-80 and I-99 via high-speed ramps will be constructed in Boggs, Spring and Marion townships in the area of the current Bellefonte I-80 exit. Once completed, it will eliminate the need to travel along Route 26 to access either highway, remove stop-controlled intersections and realign service to local traffic.
Overall construction will include “building the interchange, ten bridges, four retaining walls, five box culverts, seven sign structures and three changeable message boards,” according to PennDOT. “It also includes constructing new and rebuilding existing roadways and ramps, drainage improvements, installing Intelligent Transportation Devices, guide rail and highway lighting, pavement marking, stream improvements and miscellaneous construction.”
Work will be completed over the next six construction seasons, ending in 2030.
Initial work began Sept. 4 and involves shoulder reconstruction and widening on I-80 eastbound and westbound between mile markers 158 and 163. Shoulder reconstruction is expected to last about two months.
The interchange is the second and largest phase of a three-phase project. The third phase, which will reconstruct and widen Route 26/Jacksonville Road from the I-80 Bellefonte exit to Shay Lane in Marion Township, is projected to cost $6.9 million. It is expected to begin this year and continue into the 2026 construction season.
After Pennsylvania received a $35 million federal grant for the interchange project in 2018, work began in 2020 on the $52 million first phase to create a new local access interchange about 2 miles east of the I-80 Bellefonte exit. The new exit 163, completed in 2022, provides access for local traffic to Jacksonville Road, which will no longer be available from the current Bellefonte exit once the high-speed interchange is complete.
