Eastern Inner Loop Proposal

Overview

In State College there currently exists an “Inner Loop” designed to help alleviate congestion and improve mobility throughout the area. This loop consists of Blue Course Dr. to the west, University Dr. to the east, and a small portion of Whitehall Rd to the South. Preliminary studies have been completed for the “Eastern Inner Loop”, which would alleviate congestion on Park Ave and N Atherton St, but no further progress has been made.

Objectives

– Develop a series of conceptual design alternatives to complete the Eastern Inner Loop project.

– A performance-based evaluation of the three design alternatives will be completed to
determine a final, recommended design for the Eastern Inner Loop. The performance-
based evaluation will consist of an environmental impact assessment, safety evaluation
(predict expected number of crashes on each alternative), operational evaluation (level of
service and mobility analysis), and benefit-cost analysis for each alternative.

– Develop plan, profile, and cross-section plots of the final design alternative.

Approach

– Develop three possible alternatives that could be used to complete the Easter Inner Loop.

– Calculate safety predictions and cost estimates for each proposed alignment and select the alignment with the best options.

– Using land and traffic data from former studies, calculate values such as the final alignment construction cost, user benefits analysis, design consistency, pavement design, and super elevation profiles.

Outcomes

– The Blue Course Alignment was selected for our project based on the low number of predicted crashes, cost, and time savings from our calculations.

– The User Benefit Analysis resulted with a project investment return of 20.5 and a total of $138 million of user benefits.

– The Blue Course Alignment is predicted to decrease yearly crashes by 75%.

– The Blue Course Alignment decreases the distance traveled by .5 miles which reduces user cost and time