![abandoned pa turnpike abandoned pa turnpike](https://www.trytoscare.me/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/abandoned.jpg)
That year, the commission began studies aimed at resolving the traffic jams at the Laurel Hill and Allegheny Mountain tunnels studies for the other tunnels followed. In 1959, four Senators urged state officials to work with the turnpike commission to study ways to reduce the traffic jams. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) conducted studies on either expanding or bypassing the tunnels.
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Traffic jams formed at each tunnel, especially during the summer. One short tunnel was bypassed during the original construction of the Turnpike.īy the late 1950s, the turnpike was so heavily used that traffic congestion demanded expansion because bottlenecks at the two-lane tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike became a major problem. These tunnels were originally built as part of the South Pennsylvania Railroad. There was one tunnel through each mountain, and the highway was reduced to a single lane in each direction through each tunnel. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in 1940, it was known as the "Tunnel Highway" because it traversed seven tunnels: from east to west, Blue Mountain, Kittatinny Mountain, Tuscarora Mountain, Sideling Hill, Rays Hill, Allegheny Mountain, and Laurel Hill. In Sept of 2016, the PA Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources held a press conference and toured the trail for the purpose of moving the trail forward.Nature is starting to reclaim parts of the original 1940s roadway. When this happens it will allow the trail to apply for grants to build trail heads, bathrooms, signage, make one lane smooth, and light the tunnels.
![abandoned pa turnpike abandoned pa turnpike](https://s9155.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Abandoned-PA-Turnpike-1.jpg)
It is now in the process of being transferred to a joint authority that will own and run the trail. The entire property was sold to The Southern Alleghenies Conservancy in 2001 with the intent of opening the old roadway as a bike trail for relaxing and reflecting. You can bring your bike and enjoy the whole road from end to abandoned end. The empty tunnels along the path can be ridden through, but the equipment rooms, garages, and offices within are locked off and not available to visit without a guided tour.
![abandoned pa turnpike abandoned pa turnpike](https://i2.wp.com/architecturalafterlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Abandoned-Pennsylvania-Turnpike-013.jpg)
The cannibalistic survivors in the film seem to have been born from the abandoned surroundings. The area is so evocative that major scenes from the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s end-of-the-world novel “The Road” were filmed along, well, the road. In the ensuing years, trees have sprouted up from the pavement, water has formed small streams running through the two vehicle tunnels, and the whole area has developed an eerie quietude, as though all of the other humans had died off and the broken road was all that remained of society. The area has been closed to vehicles ever since, as nature slowly takes back the land. This long-forgotten interstate in the middle of the woods was once part of America’s first “superhighway.” The 13-mile section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike was abandoned in November of 1968, when a bypass was built over the mountains and the road suddenly became obsolete. Tranquility and post-apocalyptic blight manage to co-exist along this stretch of cracked road and vandalized tunnels hidden in the middle of the Pennsylvania forest.