The Fraser Street Realignment project, appears to need…well, a realignment. Next time you’re downtown on the corner of Beaver Ave. and Fraser St. at the new soon-to-be finished misrealignment project, you may observe that, in an effort to straighten the intersection, the road was actually moved too far in in the other direction.

When you arrive at the intersection it is clear that the sidewalks aren’t aligned, and as a result, you’ll have to cross the road diagonally. Driving north on Fraser St. toward campus, when you hit the intersection, you have to veer to the left: the wrong way down Beaver Ave. When looking down from an aerial view from the Beaver Ave. parking deck, the gaffe is even more pronounced.

Investing thousands of dollars in the fledgling Fraser development project may eventually pay off whenever the glorious Fraser Centre is finally revealed, but the first stages of the project seem peculiar.

During its infancy, the Fraser alignment project was covered by Onward State and even then the project’s design seemed puzzling. In the next several months, there should be a clearer picture of what the final project will look like.

UPDATE, 1:13 p.m.

Amy Story, Engineer for the State College Borough, provided a clarification about the current state of the intersection at W. Beaver Ave. and S. Fraser St.:

Please rest assured that the street alignment is as intended and not incorrect.  Since the 200 block of South Fraser is one-way north and there are 2 lanes, the thru-lane (closest to the Beaver Garage) lines up with the travel lane heading north on the 100 block toward College. Right now, the contractor has the northbound traffic in what will be the southbound lane when traffic is reverted to 2-way and it may appear odd. The right turn lane on 200 block of Fraser (closest to the church) will be required to “right turn only”. Also, because a turn lane into the Fraser Garage was added, the street opens up from 24′ to 30′ just after the crosswalk area. This too may look odd, but 24′ is an acceptable width and is exactly what is on Allen at Beaver. Obviously the turn lane was added to provide additional stacking for the garage and will hopefully keep the vehicles from blocking the thru-lane which is what used to happen before construction.