The
Pennsylvania Turnpike is a toll highway system operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Commission in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
, United
States
. The turnpike system encompasses
532 miles (855 km) in three sections.
Its main section,
extending from the Ohio
state line
in the west to the New
Jersey
state line in the east, is 359 miles
(578 km). Its Northeast
Extension, extending from Plymouth
Meeting
in the southeast to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton in
the northeast, is 110 miles (177 km). Its various
access segments in Western Pennsylvania total 62 miles
(100 km).
The highway serves most of Pennsylvania's major urban areas.
The main
east/west section serves the Pittsburgh
, Harrisburg
, and Philadelphia
areas, while its Northeastern Extension serves the
Allentown/Bethlehem and Scranton
/Wilkes-Barre
areas.
This highway allows an optional way of paying called
E-ZPass, in which tolls are paid electronically
through a
transponder attached to the
car behind its rear-view mirror or attached to the front
bumper.
Route numbers
The Pennsylvania Turnpike is part of the U.S. Interstate Highway
System, and is signed with the following route numbers:
- Interstate
76. Interstate 76 comprises the majority of the
system, starting at the turnpike's western terminus at the Ohio
state line. Interstate 70 joins the
turnpike at New Stanton, Exit 75, and runs concurrently with
Interstate 76 until leaving the turnpike at Breezewood, Exit 161
(the only other tolled section of I-70 is on the Kansas Turnpike).
- Interstate 276.
Interstate 76 leaves the turnpike mainline at Valley
Forge/Philadelphia, Exit 326. At that point, the turnpike becomes
Interstate 276 until it meets with a spur of the New Jersey
Turnpike at the turnpike's eastern terminus at the Delaware
River.
- Interstate 476.
The Northeast Extension, which meets the turnpike mainline at
milepost 333.5 (the interchange is designated as Exit-20, the
milepost marker for I-476), is signed as part of Interstate 476.
This section was originally signed as Pennsylvania Route 9 before
redesignation in the 1990s.
- Interstate
95. The turnpike mainline now crosses Interstate 95
but does not have a direct connection to that route, although an
interchange is being constructed in this area. Once the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95
Interchange Project
northeast of Philadelphia is completed, the section
of the turnpike east of that interchange (now Interstate 276) will
be redesignated as Interstate 95.
Toll system
Pennsylvania Turnpike Toll Ticket at
Warrendale (Exit 30).
Shows toll prices for eastbound Class 1 vehicles (two-axle
cars without trailers) from April 2006.
The majority of the turnpike is operated as a
ticket system toll road, in which a driver
receives a paper ticket on entry and pays on exit, with the amount
pre-calculated based on entrance and exit points. Most of the
system's access points are simple "trumpet"
interchanges, with a toll barrier located
between the interchange and the local connector road.
Between 1957 and 1997,
the road had three "mainline" barrier plazas, one at Gateway (at
the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line), connecting to the Ohio Turnpike, one at the Delaware River
Bridge near Bristol Township
, where the turnpike crosses the Delaware River and connects with the New Jersey Turnpike, and one on the
Northeastern Extension at Clarks Summit, where it connects with
Interstate 81 near Scranton
.
In 1992, the new Mid-County interchange opened, connecting
Interstate 476 with the main trunk of the
Turnpike. It doubles as a mainline and interchange barrier. In
2002, the Gateway barrier was converted to an all-cash plaza. And,
since January 2, 2006, only eastbound motorists are charged –
westbound motorists no longer have to pay a toll (similar to the
one-way tolls on the
Garden State
Parkway). In addition, a new mainline barrier, at Warrendale,
was added. With the opening of the new Warrendale barrier, the
Turnpike between Gateway and Warrendale is toll-free and gives
motorists direct access to the
James E. Ross Highway,
Interstate 79, and two local roads. A similar
approach was used between the Wyoming Valley interchange and Clarks
Summit on the Northeastern Extension, allowing for the construction
of the Keyser Avenue interchange, along with a new coin-drop booth
north of the exit.
This will also be implemented when the
Turnpike/Interstate 95
exit is completed in Bristol Township allowing I-95 to access the Turnpike with a
high-speed interchange.
Fares range from a low as 95 cents from one exit to the next, to as
much as over $20 in long distance travel. As of August 2009, the
fare for a two-axle automobile traveling the entire Turnpike
westbound from the Warrendale Gate to the end of the Turnpike at
the Delaware River Bridge into New Jersey, 328 miles away, costs
$24.45, or by traveling from Warrendale to the Wyoming Valley exit
at the end of the Northeast Extension (at 441 miles) costs
$28.75.
E-ZPass is accepted in designated lanes at
all toll plazas.
The Virginia Drive exit near Fort
Washington
is accessible only to E-ZPass customers.
In
addition, the proposed Great Valley interchange near Malvern
and the Philadelphia Park interchange near Bensalem
are expected to be E-ZPass-only.
Emergency assistance
The turnpike is equipped with a
callbox at
each mile for its entire length. Motorists may also dial *11 on
their mobile phones. First responder services are available to all
turnpike customers via the State Farm Safety Patrol program.
History
Pennsylvania Turnpike as it appeared
in July 1942
When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, it was built to
higher design standards and extended over a longer distance than
other limited-access divided highways in the United States. It was
popularly known as the "tunnel highway" because of the seven
mountain
tunnels along its route.
First section
The turnpike was partially constructed on an unused railroad grade
constructed for the aborted
South Pennsylvania Railroad
project, and six of its seven original tunnels (all tunnels with
the exception of the
Allegheny
Mountain tunnel) were first bored for that railroad. The
construction began in the 1880s but was never completed. A combined
total of of tunnel had been dug through seven mountains.
Proposals to use the grade and tunnels for a toll road were made
starting in late 1934. The road would bypass the steep grades on
Pennsylvania's existing major east-west highways –
US 22 (
William Penn
Highway) and
US 30 (
Lincoln Highway) – and offer a
high-speed four lane route free of cross traffic. The
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission was created by
law on May 21, 1937, and construction began October 27, 1938 with
the removal of water from the unfinished tunnels. The roadway took
770,000 tons of sand, 1,200,000 tons of stone, 50,000 tons of
steel, and more than 300,000 tons of cement to complete. It was
built at a cost of $370,000 per mile.
In
October 1, 1940 the first section of Turnpike opened, running from
US 11 near Carlisle
(southwest of Harrisburg) west to US 30 at Irwin
(east of Pittsburgh). As built, the
majority of the road was four lanes, but it narrowed to one lane in
each direction for the seven tunnels (the South Pennsylvania had
begun work on nine, but two – the Quemahoning
Tunnel
and Negro Mountain
Tunnel – were bypassed by the Turnpike). Despite
the existence of the railroad right-of-way, much of the new
Turnpike was built on a new, straighter alignment, as engineering
had progressed much since the days of the railroad.
Unlike
earlier parkways, mostly in the New York City
area, which were restricted to cars, the Turnpike
allowed all traffic. Like the German
Autobahn on which it was loosely based, there was
no enforced speed limit on most of the road—some cars could travel
at 100 mph (160 km/h) and traverse the entire
160 mile (256 km) original segment in less than two
hours. The phenomenon of highway hypnosis began to afflict motorists
on some of the long, straight segments — especially on the
21 mile (34 km) section of Turnpike between the Blue
Mountain Tunnel
and the eastern terminus at Carlisle.
A speed limit of 70 mph (115 km/h) for passenger cars was enacted
on April 15, 1941, with a speed limit of 50-65 mph (80-105 km/h)
for trucks based on weight, and speed limits of 35 mph (60 km/h) in
tunnels and 45 mph (75 km/h) on bridges. During
World War II, the Turnpike adopted the national
speed limit of 35 mph (60 km/h). In the 1950s, the speed limit was
reduced to 65 mph (105 km/h) for all vehicles, and again reduced to
55 mph (88 km/h) in 1974 when the federal government enacted a
national speed limit. The speed limit was once again raised to 65
mph in 1995, but did not cover the Delaware River extension or the
Northeast Extension. Those two segments were restored to a 65 mph
speed limit several years later.
Expansion
With the success of the original 160 mile (256 km)
segment, the Turnpike Commission planned to expand the original
turnpike to a cross-state route, connecting Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh with a high-speed route. This was shelved with the onset
of
World War II, but with the war's
end, the Turnpike Commission resumed construction.
Philadelphia Extension
The
Philadelphia Extension extended the turnpike east
to King of
Prussia
near Philadelphia and Valley
Forge, Pennsylvania
. The first phase of that expansion made the
highway slightly longer, stretching it to US
15 near Harrisburg. That section opened on
February 1, and the rest of the expansion, east
to King of Prussia, opened on November 20, 1950. At that time the
old mainline toll booth and interchange at Carlisle was closed, and
the Middlesex interchange, at the old east end at
US 11, was reconfigured and renamed as the Carlisle
interchange. The original eastern end of the Philadelphia Extension
ended at what is now the present-day interchange with
Interstate 76 and
U.S. Highway
202.
Western Extension
The first piece of the
Western Extension, from
Irwin to
US 22 at Monroeville, east of
Pittsburgh, opened August 7, 1951. The remainder opened to traffic
on December 26, 1951, taking the highway west almost to the Ohio
state line. Traffic was diverted onto the two-lane Burkey Road just
west of the western barrier toll for almost three years until a
connection with the Ohio Turnpike connection opened.
The interchange with
Pennsylvania Route 18 at
Homewood
was not completed until March 1, 1952. The
turnpike connected with Youngstown, Ohio, after the first section
of the
Ohio Turnpike opened on
December 1, 1954.
Delaware River Extension
The
Delaware River Extension opened on August 23, 1954
to Pennsylvania Route 611 at
Willow
Grove
, and the intermediate Fort
Washington
interchange with PA 309 opened September 20.
Extensions opened October 27 to
U.S. 1 near Trevose
and November 17 to US 13 near Bristol
Township. The final piece opened on May 23, 1956 with
the completion of the Delaware River – Turnpike Toll
Bridge
, which connected to a short spur of the New Jersey Turnpike.
Northeast Extension
The
Northeast Extension, from the Mid-County
Interchange
northwest of Philadelphia north to Interstate 81 near Scranton, opened in stages from November 23, 1955 to
November 7, 1957. This was the last segment of the Turnpike
system to be built until the late 1980s.
Formerly signed as
Pennsylvania Route 9, in 1996 after the expansion
of the Lehigh
Tunnel
to four lanes, the entire extension became part of
Interstate 476 (continuing from the Chester-to-Plymouth Meeting
freeway).
Other highways
Western expansions
Western extensions, that mostly serve the Pittsburgh Area were
constructed from the 1990s until the present. The James E. Ross
Highway and the
Amos K.
Hutchinson Bypass were
completed by 1994, and the James J. Manderino Highway, a West
Virginia-to-Pittsburgh route, (
Mon/Fayette Expressway) is
approximately 50% completed with the last major link to Pittsburgh
under design. The first section of the Pittsburgh
Southern Beltway (from the
Mon/Fayette Expressway to the Pittsburgh International Airport) has
been completed and is open to traffic. Environmental Impact
Statements (EIS) for the two remaining sections are in
preparation
Competing highways
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission originally proposed a
statewide system of additional toll highways, but these plans were
rendered unnecessary with the inception of the U.S. Interstate
Highway system in 1956. A toll-free east-west competitor –
Interstate 80 –
opened on August 29, 1970 across northern Pennsylvania, forming a
route that was more direct for New York-Chicago traffic. In 2007,
however, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania leased Interstate 80 to
the Turnpike Commission. Under this lease agreement, this would
have allowed the Turnpike Commission to convert Interstate 80 to a
toll highway.However, on September 11, 2008, the Federal Highway
Administration rejected Pennsylvania's application to toll
Interstate 80.
2004 Teamsters strike
On November 24, 2004, two thousand
Teamsters Union employees of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike went on
strike,
after contract negotiations failed. This was the day before
Thanksgiving, usually one of the
busiest traffic days in the United States. To keep the turnpike
open, tolls were waived for the remainder of the day. Starting on
November 25, flat-rate passenger tolls
of $2 and commercial tolls of $15 were collected from cash
customers on the ticketed system by management staff of the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. E-ZPass customers were charged
the lesser of the actual toll or the same flat rates. This
represented a substantial discount for many travelers, who would
normally have to pay $19.75 to travel along the full length of the
main east-west route in a passenger car, and between $29 and $794,
depending on vehicle weight class, to cross the state in a
commercial vehicle. The strike only lasted seven days, with an
agreement reached on
November 30. Normal
toll collection resumed
December 1.
The "Tunnel Highway"
After it opened as the nation's first superhighway, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike was popularly known as the "Tunnel Highway".
Postcards and other souvenirs promoted this name because,
immediately after opening, the original stretch of the turnpike
sported seven tunnels through Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains.
These tunnels, in order of east to west, bored through Blue
Mountain, Kittattiny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Sideling Hill,
Ray's Hill, Allegheny Mountain, and Laurel Hill.
Modernization
While the highway was built as a four-lane, limited-access highway,
the seven tunnels each held only two travel lanes. Traffic was
squeezed from four lanes to two at each tunnel portal, and traffic
proceeded through each tunnel without being divided from oncoming
traffic. By the 1960s, this situation was creating long delays at
each tunnel bottleneck. To alleviate this overcrowding, the
turnpike commission studied ways to either expand or bypass each
tunnel.
The result of this project was the "twinning" (construction of a
second, parallel, two-lane tunnel) of four tunnels, and the
outright bypass and closure of the other three. The Blue,
Kittattiny, Tuscarora, and Allegheny Mountain Tunnels were expanded
through the construction of new tunnels identical to the original
tunnels in design, construction methods (dynamite and wooden
supports), and length. After the second tunnels were completed at
each location, the original tunnels were temporarily closed for
rehabilitations that included upgrades in forced air ventliation
and lighting systems.
The
Sideling
Hill
, Rays
Hill
, and Laurel Hill
tunnels were closed and bypassed. The
adjacent Sideling Hill and Rays Hill tunnels were replaced with one
stretch of highway that climbed over those mountains, while the
Laurel Hill Tunnel was bypassed with a long rock cut through the
mountain. The three bypassed tunnels are still in existence.
The
stretch that contained the Sideling Hill and Rays Hill Tunnels are
now part of a popular tourist attraction known as the Abandoned
Pennsylvania Turnpike
, most of which was sold to Southern Alleghenies
Conservancy in 2001. The Laurel Hill stretch, which is
much shorter at about , is still owned by the PTC and trespassing
is prohibited.
Lehigh Tunnel
The Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike contains the
Lehigh Tunnel, a tunnel through Blue Mountain. The tunnel was named
"Lehigh Tunnel" so as not to cause confusion with the existing Blue
Mountain tunnel on the mainline. The tunnel was originally to be
named for Turnpike Commission chairman Thomas J. Evans, but this
was changed due to his July 25, 1967 conviction for conspiracy to
defraud the Turnpike Commission of $19 million.
The Lehigh Tunnel was originally a two-lane tunnel, in the manner
of the highway's original seven tunnels, until it was "twinned" in
the early 1990s. The new Lehigh Tunnel is the only tunnel built by
the Turnpike Commission using the
New Austrian Tunnelling
method. With this method, tunnels are built using a special
machine resembling a large electric razor blade, guided by lasers.
The tunneled area is reinforced with
shotcrete, a slurry mixture, as it is bored,
eliminating the need for wooden supports. Because of the new
construction, the new tube, which is round, contrasts sharply with
the original rectangular tube, which was carved by the older
dyamite blasting method.
Allegheny Tunnel modernization
West portal, Allegheny Mountain
Tunnel
The
Allegheny
Mountain Tunnel
, currently the longest tunnel complex on the entire
Turnpike system (only the bypassed Sideling Hill Tunnel was
longer), and the only one of the original seven tunnels not to have
been originally bored for the aborted Southeast Pennsylvania
Railroad project, is currently the most problematic tunnel for the
turnpike. In 1996, the turnpike commission began a study on
how to address this tunnel, which was suffering from a low traffic
capacity and deterioration. The study recommended that a bypass
(known as the "Brown Cut") be blasted through the adjacent
mountain, but a high pricetag and opposition from landowners and
environmental groups shelved this project. The commission is
currently realigning the approach roads to the tunnel while
examining more acceptable ways to address the capacity and
age-related issues of the tunnels.
Aborted extensions and expansions
Soon after the mainline was built, the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Commission proposed a number of extensions as part of a
1,000 mile (1,600 km) Turnpike network. These plans were
dropped in the mid-1950s in favor of the
Interstate Highway System. The
proposed network included the following:
Although
the extensions were dropped, the commission also looked into a
major expansion project in the early 1970s in which the east-west
mainline would be expanded into a "dual-dual" eight-lane highway
similar to that of the New Jersey
Turnpike between Monroe Township
(near Jamesburg
) and Newark
. With the dual-dual configuration, the inner
two lanes would be car-only lanes while the outer lanes would be
for trucks, buses, and trailers.
The dual-dual would have required major realignments, similar to
that of the Sideling Hill relocation, but most of the original
infrastructure would have remained intact in most places. This plan
was dropped by 1976, but since 1980, most of the original plan was
implemented on a smaller scale. Truck climbing lanes were built on
the Allegheny Ridge and Sideling Hill, and the roadway was expanded
to six lanes between the Valley Forge and Philadelphia exits. The
six-lane configuration was planned or in the process of being
constructed between the proposed Great Valley Slip Ramp and
Norristown, between Philadelphia and the New Jersey Turnpike, and
on the Northeast Extension between Mid-County and Lansdale.
Current events
Today, the Turnpike is controlled by the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Commission, handles over 172 million vehicles per year, and employs
nearly 2,200 people.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is currently reconfiguring and
expanding the Turnpike to meet modern traffic needs. Parts of the
original Irwin-Carlisle section are being rebuilt with new roadbeds
(using the original concrete and later macadam paving), and
long-duration "Superpave" macadam asphalt (similar to a process
used on I-95 in Delaware between
U.S. Highway
202 and the Pennsylvania State Line in 2000), new interchanges,
and overpasses, the latter two being done well in advance of any
major upgrade projects.
A project to expand the highway from four to six lanes between
Norristown and Valley Forge is now complete, making the entire
length of the turnpike between the Philadelphia and Valley Forge
interchanges six lanes. The completion of the entire I-95/Turnpike
exit (along with the building of the paralleling Turnpike Connector
Bridge) will bring the entire Delaware River Extension to six
lanes.
A similar
six-lane expansion began in 2008 for the Northeast Extension,
between its junction in Plymouth Meeting to the Lansdale
interchange in Kulpsville
; another expansion is planned on the mainline
turnpike between Valley Forge and the Downingtown interchange, the
westernmost of the turnpike's Philadelphia suburban
interchanges. Some of the bridges between Valley Forge and
Downingtown have already been widened.
projects include building unmanned "slip ramps" between existing
interchanges. One has been built (for E-Z Pass tagholders only)
near Fort Washington (Virginia Drive), and several others are
planned.
On
Memorial Day weekend 2005, the
Pennsylvania Turnpike system became the first highway system in
Pennsylvania to have a speed limit on the entire length (except for
the tunnels themselves, and the winding 5.5-mile (9 km)
eastern approach to the Allegheny Mountain Tunnel) of both the mainline turnpike and the Northeast
Extension. This is the first time since the mandated
55 mph (88 km/h) speed limit was implemented in 1974 that
a motorist can cross the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at
65 mph (105 km/h) without having to travel at lower
speeds for extended periods.
The PA Turnpike Commission is currently seeking approval to add
Interstate 80 to the turnpike system
and thus apply a toll to the highway.
Future slip ramp locations
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is considering several E-ZPass
only slip ramps along the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
These locations
include PA Route 29 near milemarker 319
in East Whiteland Township
, Chester County
to serve the Great Valley Corporate Center
near Malvern., Lafayette Street & U.S. 202 near
milemarker 331 near Bridgeport
and Norristown
in Montgomery County
, and PA Route 132
(Street Road) near milemarker 352 by the Philadelphia
Park Racetrack
in Bensalem Township, Bucks County
. The Norristown slip ramp is intended to
help revitalize the downtown area of Norristown, is expected to
cost $160 million, and will call for an extension of Lafayette
Street to the new interchange. Montgomery County officials have
proposed a surcharge for the new exit in order to help pay for the
project.
The turnpike commission is also considering
slip ramps near the New Stanton area as a part of the ongoing total
reconstruction process going on between MP67 (IRWIN) and MP75 (New
Stanton) and in Carbon County
on the Northeast Extension to provide access to
PA Route 903 for Poconos traffic between the Mahoning Valley (74) and
Pocono (95) interchanges.
Interchange with Interstate 95 project
Interstate 95 and the
Pennsylvania Turnpike now cross each other without an interchange.
This is
related to (but not because of) a gap in Interstate 95 in New Jersey, where local opposition groups managed to stop
construction of the Somerset
Freeway through the area. Earlier laws, since lifted,
only allowed federal funds to be used to build connections to toll
roads "to a point where such project will have some use
irrespective of its use for such toll road, bridge, or tunnel",
hence the lack of direct connections between the PA Turnpike and
major north–south Interstates until the 1990s.
Heading northbound
from Pennsylvania into Ewing Township
(by Trenton, New
Jersey
), Interstate 95 abruptly ends at its
intersection with U.S. 1. From there, the highway is
then signed as
Interstate 295, and
turns south. To continue on Interstate 95 northbound, one must
travel south on
Interstate 295 then
east on
Interstate 195
(or use a non-freeway section of
U.S. 1) in order to reach the
northern section of the
New Jersey
Turnpike, which is signed as Interstate 95.
A project is currently planned to install a high speed interchange
between the two highways. In addition to the new interchange, the
PTC will expand the existing four-lane road to six lanes east of
the Philadelphia interchange (
U.S. 1), build a new facility at
milepost 353 to collect toll tickets, and convert the present
Delaware River Bridge toll barrier, which currently collects
tickets, to a westbound-only exact-change and high-speed E-ZPass
facility.
In addition, both the PTC and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority will build
a twin parallel bridge over the Delaware River, with the NJTPA
itself expanding the mainline Turnpike itself from its current six
lanes to a dual-dual configuration like that found north of
Monroe. This project will complete I-95 from
Miami,
Florida
to Houlton,
Maine
. Construction is expected to start in early
2009 and will cost approximately $500 million.
Privatization
In
November 2006, Pennsylvania Governor Ed
Rendell and former Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel separately raised the idea of a
long-term lease of the turnpike to a private group as a means of
raising money to improve other infrastructure within the state,
following examples of similar toll road lease arrangements in
Illinois
, Indiana
, Texas
, and
Virginia
. Although no plans are immediately in place,
Rendell and Perzel have speculated that a lease of the system could
bring anywhere from $2.5 to $30 billion to the state.
This idea faced criticism from the legislature, and instead a plan
was created to lease
Interstate 80 to the
Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and place tolls on it to fund
transportation. However, this plan faced opposition from many
people in Northern Pennsylvania who feared tolls on I-80 would hurt
the economy of the region, which led Rendell to revive the plan of
leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike. In October 2007, 34 companies
submitted 14 proposals to leasing the turnpike. On May 19, 2008,
the Spanish firm
Abertis
Infraestructuras, SA and
Citi
Infrastructure Investors of New York City submitted a record
$12.8 billion proposal to lease the turnpike. It still faces
approval by the state legislature.
Service plaza updates
Sideling Hill service area
The PTC awarded
HMSHost a 30-year contract
for all of the
service plazas in 2006.
As part
of the deal, the plazas will be torn down and rebuilt from the
ground up, starting with the Oakmont
Service Plaza near Pittsburgh
, which would reopen in time for the 2007 U.S.
Open Golf Championship at
Oakmont
Country Club
. Most of the plazas had been standing since
the Turnpike opened in 1940 and had not been remodeled since
Howard Johnson's left the Turnpike
in the 1980s.
, the Oakmont, North
Somerset
, Sideling
Hill
, & New Stanton
plazas along the mainline and the Allentown
Service Plaza along the Northeast Extension
have been rebuilt.
The
King of
Prussia
Service Plaza on the main line & the Hickory
Run Service Plaza on the Northeast Extension are currently under
construction. Before the agreement, HMSHost had the bulk of
the plazas, while
McDonald's had five and
Arby's had the plaza at Oakmont.
Philadelphia
-based Sunoco remains the fuel
supplier along the Turnpike.
The deal led to the closing of 3 of the 21 plazas.
The south Neshaminy
Service Plaza near Philadelphia
was closed and razed as part of the Philadelphia
Park Raceway
casino slip ramp project, while the Hempfield
service plaza was closed due to its close
proximity to the New Stanton exit and the PTC needing to widen the
roadway for the exit. The Zelienople
Service Plaza closed on November 15, 2008 due
to lack of business, since it was located on what is now the "free"
stretch of the Turnpike from the Ohio state line
to Cranberry Township
, thus allowing motorists to easily leave and
re-enter this section of the Turnpike without having to travel
through a toll plaza.
Radio broadcasts
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission broadcasts current roadway,
traffic, and weather conditions via "Highway Advisory Radio"
transmitters at each exit. The broadcasts are available on AM 1640
and can be heard approximately two miles away from each exit. The
broadcast callsign is WPNX700 .
Exit list
Until October 25, 2000,
exit numbers
were numbered in sequence. On that day, mile-based exit numbers
were added, and the old numbers were moved onto smaller "old exit"
tabs.
This was done at the same time the Pennsylvania Department of
Transportation
(PennDOT) did a similar upgrade on all of the
state's Interstate Highways.
For exits on the Northeast Extension, see
Interstate 476.
See also
References
- PA Highways.com Turnpike page
- Mastrull, Diane. "Montco devises a novel pay plan"
The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 9,
2008
- http://www.paturnpikei95.com/
-
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-43/1164066244260360.xml&storylist=penn
- Nussbaum, Paul. "Interest to lease turnpike is broad"
The Philadelphia Inquirer, October
2, 2007
Further reading
- Cupper, Dan, The Pennsylvania Turnpike: A History,
Lebanon, PA: Applied Arts Publishers, 1990, 48pp, ISBN
0911410901
External links
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