Design

Category 3 - Rural Highways: Freeways

Award of Excellence

U.S. Routes 22/322, Lewistown Narrows Project
Derry Township and Fermanagh Township, Pennyslvania

The Lewistown Narrows Project is a 10.3-mile-long highway project along U.S. 22/322 located east of Lewistown Borough, PA. U.S. 22/322 was constructed in the 1930s and had narrow shoulder widths, steep cut and fill slopes, lack of drainage facilities, substandard horizontal clearances, lack of superelevated sections, and numerous uncontrolled driveways. The crash statistics throughout this corridor were very high. The two-lane, uncontrolled access highway was transformed into a four-lane limited access highway, which greatly improves safety. Utilizing a bifurcated alignment design that incorporates nine river walls, impacts to the historic Pennsylvania Canal were also reduced. Since the opening of the road on December 14, 2007 (one full year ahead of schedule), safety has improved significantly.

Designer: The EADS Group, Altoona, PA
Contractor: Walsh Construction., Chicago, IL
Owner: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Clearfield, PA