PennDOT District 9-0 in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Blair County MPO, has started preparation of a needs study for the 17th Street (State Route 4010) and the 6th and 7th Avenue (State Route 764) corridors in Altoona. The needs study is part of Phase II of the five phase transportation project development process.


The work for the needs study started in the fall 2005 with the development of a travel demand forecasting model. Traffic engineers collected a wide range of traffic data, including 24-hour traffic counts, intersection turning movement counts, license plate surveys, and post card surveys. Socioeconomic and population data was combined with the traffic data to construct a travel demand computer model. The baseline model identified current traffic patterns to and from different areas of the city.

PennDOT then applied projected population, employment and other socioeconomic data to the baseline model to determine future traffic patterns up to the year 2026. This future year model will be utilized with other tools and analysis to determine future needs in the 17th Street and 6th and 7th Avenue corridors.

The 17th Street and 6th and 7th Avenue Needs Study will use the future year model and data to identify the needs in these areas. A project need is a detailed explanation of the specific transportation problems or deficiencies which have caused the search for improvements. Public involvement plays an important role in helping the designers identify project needs. It is important for the engineers to fully understand the problems in order to design effective solutions.

Once consensus is reached on the project needs, the designers will be able to use the information in the needs study to start an alternatives analysis. The designers will examine proposed alternatives and provide solutions to effectively meet the projects needs. Continuing public involvement and environmental documentation are integral to the alternatives analysis stage. Once and alternative is chosen, the project continues into the preliminary and final design stages.