The design of Section A11 included accommodations for ducks and bats as well as trucks and cars.

This Narrows construction phase involved the reconstruction of the Route 22/322 interchange with Business Route 22 in Derry Township, Mifflin County, near the eastern border of Lewistown. Work included a new bridge to carry westbound Business Route 22 traffic over about one mile of new, four-lane Route 22/322 roadway. This section links with the six-mile long section A09, which lies to the east along the Juniata River.

A bat box

But, vehicles weren't the only consideration in planning this project. Because A09 encroaches into the river bank area, its design included replacement of the lost habitat with an even larger open water and marshy area. In summer and fall of 2004, crews developed a 2.5 acre pond and 2.8 acre wetland off Route 75 in Lack Township, Juniata County. Wildlife amenities include a bat house and wood duck nesting boxes in the water and wetlands, which flow into Tuscarora Creek. Seeded with grass and designed to sprout indigenous wetland vegetation, the area provides habitat for a wide variety of native plants as well as birds, ducks, frogs, turtles and other wildlife.

View of the pond and duck boxes

The $19.1 million section of the Narrows construction project was awarded in February 2003 to Dick Corporation, Pittsburgh. Work began in March 2003 and was complete in late fall 2005.

This is a long-awaited improvement for the interchange of Routes 322/22 and Route 22 in Mifflin County and another major step toward improving the Route 322 corridor from Harrisburg to State College by constructing the highway through the "Narrows."

One of the significant challenges in this phase was maintaining traffic flow, but PennDOT used special traffic provisions, such as temporary traffic signals and limitation of traffic interruptions during peak travel times to diminish traffic impacts.