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Plan shows future vision for Thruway, Route 220 projects

The path to making a dangerous, eight-mile stretch of Route 220 between Williamsport and Jersey Shore safe has not been cheap or expedient.

Much has been done over the past decade to improve that section of highway, but more work remains in the next few years.

That work was part of $400 million in highway improvements planned in Lycoming County over the next 20 years, the details of which were reviewed last week by the Williamsport Area Transportation study group.

Most of the $400 million is in state and federal highway grant money, with a large chunk going toward completion of the Susquehanna Valley Thruway Project. The initial phases of that landmark work are ongoing, but some of the most dramatic improvements will happen a few years from now at the Shamokin Dam end of the thruway connection to Route 15.

When all that work is done, Route 15 will officially be a four-lane highway from Maryland to New York state.

Highway improvements are expensive, tedious and take years to complete. At their best, they bring safety, travel expediency and economic payoffs to localities, the counties and states.

Pennsylvania has a dubious reputation regarding the condition of its highways. When the Route 220 safety improvements and the Susquehanna Valley Thruway are completed, those major connectors – one east/west and one north/south – will be among the most modern travel routes in the state. Hopefully, the safety and economic payoffs will be realized in full.

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