With the opening of 7 miles of a newly constructed toll road in Somerset County last week and two more projects under construction, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is about 18 miles away from resurfacing the highway between the Ohio border and the Bedford County border.
For more than 25 years, a multi-billion dollar mission has been underway to rebuild more than 720 kilometers of the road, some of which dates back to the 1940s.
So far, 155 miles have been rebuilt, including the 7 miles that opened last week in Somerset. About 96 miles of that is between the Ohio border and Bedford, and two more projects are currently under construction — 2 miles in Beaver County near the Beaver River Bridge, scheduled for completion in 2027, and 7 miles along the Somerset-Bedford border, scheduled for completion in 2026.
Somerset and the two projects under construction include widening the highway to three lanes in each direction, a statewide goal of the agency.
The remaining 18 miles between Oakmont and Irwin are either still in the planning phase, awaiting construction funding, or awaiting design funding. The cost of expanding to three lanes in each direction is estimated at $1.1 billion, with the most expensive work expected to be the reconstruction of the area around the Monroeville interchange at a cost of $297 million.
The turnpike’s commitment to moving forward with these projects is clear from the groundwork already done. For example, the agency replaced bridges over the turnpike at Unity Trestle and Saltsburg roads in Plum and Center Road in Monroeville to lengthen them and create more space beneath them for the wider toll road.
Work on the toll road will be carried out as soon as toll revenues are available to finance it.
The $135 million Somerset project by New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. Inc. included moving 2.7 million cubic yards of earth, creating basins and rain gardens to control stormwater runoff, and building three retaining walls.
The expansion and modernization projects are part of what toll road CEO Mark Compton regularly refers to as “protecting our assets.”
“We are pleased to have completed this project that will provide Turnpike customers with a safer, more efficient travel experience,” said Brad Heigel, Turnpike chief engineer, in a press release. “We are proud to continue modernizing America’s first superhighway to meet the needs of the half a million passengers who travel our roadway every day.”
Ed covers transportation for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette but is currently on strike. You can email him at [email protected].
