Interstate 99
Interstate 99 is an Interstate Highway in the United States with two segments: one located in central Pennsylvania, and the other in southern New York. The southern terminus of the route is near exit 146 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike north of Bedford, where the road continues south as U.S. Route 220. The northern terminus of the Pennsylvania segment is near exit 161 of I-80 near Bellefonte. The New York segment follows US 15 from the Pennsylvania–New York border to an interchange with I-86 in Corning. Within Pennsylvania, I-99 passes through Altoona and State College—the latter home to Pennsylvania State University—and is entirely concurrent with US 220. Long-term plans call for the two segments of I-99 to be connected using portions of I-80, US 220, and US 15 through Pennsylvania.
Unlike most Interstate Highway numbers, which were assigned by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to fit into a grid, I-99's number was written into Section 332 of the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 by Bud Shuster, then-chair of the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the bill's sponsor, and the representative of the district through which the highway runs. I-99 violates the AASHTO numbering convention associated with Interstate Highways, as it should lie to the east of I-97 but instead lies east of I-79 and west of I-81.
Route description
Pennsylvania
New York
The northern segment of I-99 is entirely concurrent with US 15, and starts at the Pennsylvania-New York border north of Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania. A four-lane freeway through the Steuben County town of Lindley, I-99 crosses through a rock cut, making a large bend to the north and bypassing the hamlet of Presho. The freeway enters a partial cloverleaf interchange with CR 5. After CR 5, I-99 turns northeast through the town of Erwin, running to the west of the Indian Hills Golf Club. Making a gradual bend further to the northeast, the freeway crosses the Canisteo River and enters the hamlet of Erwins, where it enters a diamond interchange with NY 417. After NY 417, it then turns alongside Norfolk Southern Railroad's Southern Tier Line. Now paralleling the tracks and NY 417, I-99/US 15 crosses through Erwin, entering exit 11, which connects to NY 417 once again, next to Gang Mills Yard, the site of the former Painted Post station.After Gang Mills Yard, I-99 crosses through the Gang Mills section of Erwin, entering a large interchange at the northern end of the neighborhood. Signed exit 12, this interchange serves CR 107 via NY 417. After CR 107, I-99 enters a large interchange that utilizes several flyover ramps between I-99, US 15, I-86, and NY 17. Ramps are also present, connecting to NY 352. This interchange serves as the northern terminus of both I-99 and US 15.
History
Origins
Corridor O of the Appalachian Development Highway System was assigned in 1965, running from Cumberland, Maryland to Bellefonte along US 220. The portion in Pennsylvania, from Bedford north to Bald Eagle, was upgraded to a freeway in stages from the 1960s to the 1990s. The first section, from US 30 in Bedford to Pennsylvania Route 56 near Cessna, opened in the latter half of the 1960s. Two more sections—from PA 56 north to modern exit 15 in Blair County and from Charlottsville to Bald Eagle—were completed in the 1970s. The portion between exit 15 and Altoona was finished in the 1980s while the segment between modern exits 33 and 45 was opened by 1997.In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act was signed into law. It included a number of High Priority Corridors, one of which—Corridor 9—ran along US 220 from Bedford to Williamsport, and then north on US 15 to Corning, New York. The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 amended ISTEA; among these amendments were that "the portion of the route referred to in subsection is designated as Interstate Route I-99." This was the first Interstate Highway number to be written into law rather than to be assigned by AASHTO. The number was specified by Representative Bud Shuster, who said that the standard spur numbering was not "catchy"; instead, I-99 was named after a street car, No. 99, that took people from Shuster's hometown of Glassport to McKeesport. I-99 violates the AASHTO numbering convention associated with Interstate Highways, since it lies east of I-79 but west of I-81.
Designation and Bald Eagle Ridge
On November 6, 1998, AASHTO formally approved the I-99 designation, which initially extended from the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford to PA 350 in Bald Eagle. In 2002, plans were set in motion to extend I-99 northeast from Bald Eagle to State College via Port Matilda. The extension was fraught with issues, however. The proposed alignment for the highway north to Port Matilda proved to be controversial: while environmentalists called for I-99 to be constructed in the valley below Bald Eagle Ridge, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and valley residents favored a routing that took the freeway above the valley and along the side of the ridge. Farther north, the widening of Skytop, the mountain cut that US 322 uses to traverse Bald Eagle Ridge, resulted in the exposure of acidic pyrite rock in 2003.. The blank spots on the overhead signs were reserved for I-99 shields.
Work on the segment ceased one year later as PennDOT attempted to stop the flow of acidic runoff from the site. The state remedied the situation by removing of pyrite and replacing it with a mix of limestone and fill, a process that took two years and cost $83 million. With the environmental issues settled, construction resumed on the portion of the freeway south of Skytop Mountain. The section from Bald Eagle to Port Matilda was opened to traffic on December 17, 2007, while the remaining section between Port Matilda and the west end of the Mount Nittany Expressway near State College was completely opened on November 17, 2008. In all, the Bald Eagle–State College section of I-99 cost $631 million to construct.
I-99 was extended northeastward to meet I-80 northeast of Bellefonte following the completion of the Bald Eagle–State College segment. The connection was made by way of the pre-existing Mount Nittany Expressway and another, unnamed limited-access highway connecting the State College bypass to the Bellefonte area. The portion of the latter highway north of the PA 26 interchange was originally built in the 1970s as a two-lane freeway connecting Pleasant Gap to I-80. At the time, it was designated solely as PA 26. It was widened to four lanes in 1997. The piece connecting the PA 26 freeway to the Mount Nittany Expressway was completed in 2002. US 220 was rerouted via US 322 and the new road, and the old alignment of US 220 north of US 322 was designated US 220 Alternate on May 30, 2003.
On June 27, 2014, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the interstate-grade US 15 freeway from the Pennsylvania border to I-86 in Corning was officially signed as I-99.
Future
Though there is no specific date for completion, long-term plans call for I-99 to be extended along US 220 from Bellefonte to the junction with I-80, run concurrent with I-80, follow US 220 to Williamsport, and run northward along US 15 from Williamsport to the New York border. This portion of US 15 is upgraded to Interstate Highway standards in anticipation of the I-99 designation. Signs have been erected along the present US 220 and US 15 between Bellefonte and Corning—much of which are built to Interstate Highway standards—marking the route as the "Future I-99 Corridor". Some of this section of road has also received exit number designations. The entirety of US 15 north of Williamsport is a limited-access highway.During a 2002 task force meeting for I-99, it was suggested that I-390, which extends north from I-86 west of the I-86/I-99 junction near Corning and which crosses I-90 and terminates in the greater Rochester metropolitan area, be redesignated as I-99 once the I-80 to I-86 portion of that route is completed. The idea posits that I-390 is a logical extension of the I-99 corridor because I-99's predecessor, U.S. Route 15, originally extended to Rochester. No official moves to accomplish this have been forwarded, however.
PennDOT has plans to build a high-speed interchange connecting I-99 to I-80 near Bellefonte. The new interchange will eliminate local access between PA 26 and I-80, which will be provided by a new exit to the east. The first phase of the project will build the local access interchange between PA 26 and I-80. Bidding on the local access interchange began on April 23, 2020 and construction is expected to be finished in December 2021. The local access interchange between PA 26 and I-80 will be funded by a $34 million federal grant. The second phase of the project will make improvements to Jacksonville Road between the new interchange and the junction between I-80 along with building the high-speed interchange between I-80 and I-99. Bidding on the second phase is planned to begin in March 2022, with the improvements to Jacksonville Road to be finished by December 2023 and the high-speed interchange to be completed by December 2025.