Penns Valley Area School District begins $8.5 million renovation for roads, parking lots
An $8.5 million renovation to roads and parking lots is underway at two Penns Valley Area School District buildings.
The Safe School Route 45 Corridor Improvement Project aims to create safer pathways for Penns Valley Area elementary/intermediate and high school students. Superintendent Brian Griffith said that the new plan will make it safer for students when crossing bus lanes. It will also increase parking spots and help decrease traffic on state Route 45.
The renovations will add 99 regular and 11 accessible parking spaces for the Elementary/Intermediate building and 292 regular and seven accessible parking spaces for PVHS.
Prior to renovations, students had to walk in front of and in-between buses to get to parent drop-off areas. The renovations will separate those areas and provide safe walkways for students during arrival and departure times.
“Certainly adding parking is one thing, but it’s as much about creating a safe walking corridor and separating bus traffic from parent drop-off traffic in the morning,” Griffith said.
Several areas will undergo changes including parking lots, the stadium entrance and changing Ram Challenge Drive to a one-way road. After construction, Ram Challenge Drive will connect to Green Grove Road to help divert traffic off of Route 45 and prevent accidents. The project will also remove one of the two crosswalks across Route 45 and add strobe lights and safety measures to the remaining walkway.
“In the dark times, usually early morning hours, we’ve had accidents where there’s so much congestion on Route 45,” Griffith said. “We’re hoping we can get traffic off of 45 so that folks aren’t sitting there waiting to turn. That will help with a large portion of the safety issues that we have concerns with.”
Construction is expected to take 18 months, with a completion date in fall 2024. Although work will be done over the summer, students at PVHS will have to park in the back lot this fall as the front lot will be under construction.
Construction started in June but the project has been in the works since early 2020. Following the $1.2 million purchase of 119 acres of farmland next to the district in 2018, the administration held several public meetings to determine the land’s use. Griffith said the majority of public requests for the land’s usage centered around parking, safety and traffic concerns.
“It’s taken this long because state entities were closed down for COVID,” Griffith said. “They weren’t moving forward with some of the plan approvals, things slowed down, and that’s why it’s kind of been delayed.”
Schematic renderings of the property were shown to the board in April and in May the board approved a $8,527,000 contract to Glenn O. Hawbaker, Inc. and Westmoreland Electric Services, LLC for the project. As the district has been setting aside funds since 2020, the cost will come out of the district’s existing cash reserves. Griffith said the district has also applied for grants to help cover the costs.
Some of the features in the renderings will not be part of the renovation, including additional parking lots in the high school and elementary school and new men’s and women’s bathrooms at the stadium entrance. During a May meeting, the board unanimously voted no, citing costs, on the $2.3 million stadium improvement project, which would have provided new restrooms at the stadium entrance.
