A surprising announcement from PENNDOT late Tuesday night.

As plans for a major Centre County highway project have hit a dead end. PENNDOT says they can't afford the project right now.

We've been talking in recent weeks about how future road projects are going to be delayed because of tighter transportation budgets- but this is a huge surprise and setback for a major highway project that's been the subject of intense debate- PENNDOT says we simply don't have the money.

The announcement stunned those attending a Transportation Planning Meeting Tuesday night- after nearly three decades of discussion- PENNDOT pulls the plug on plans to build a new highway in Eastern Centre County- a road envisioned to upgrade the Route 322/144 Corridor to Interstate 80.

PENNDOT says it could be up to ten years before the South Central Corridor proposal in Centre County is even on the drawing board.

The debate had been whether the new highway should travel into the State College Area - or through Penns Valley farmland. But that debate and the project are now shelved- again PENNDOT says its dropping plans to upgrade the Route 322/144 Corridor in Centre County in State College