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The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike is the common name of a 13-mile (21 km) stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 when a modern stretch opened to ease traffic congestion in the tunnels. In this case, the Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hill Tunnel were bypassed, as was one of the Turnpike's travel plazas.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission started construction on a new toll highway from Carlisle, Pennsylvania to Irwin, Pennsylvania in 1938. When the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened on October 25, 1940, the Sideling Hill Tunnel was one of the seven original tunnels along the highway, six of which were built from the old railroad tunnels from the 1880s.
I-76 (Pennsylvania Turnpike) 4,727 feet (1,441 m) [49] Laurel Hill Tunnel: Cook and Jefferson Townships Pennsylvania Turnpike (abandoned) 4,541 feet (1,384 m) 1940 [50] Lehigh Tunnel: Lehigh and Carbon counties I-476 (Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike) Blue Mountain: 4,400 feet (1,300 m) 1957, 1991 [51] Liberty Tunnel: Pittsburgh
Rays Hill Tunnel is 3,532 feet (1,077 m) long. It was the shortest of the seven original tunnels on Pennsylvania Turnpike. Due to its short length, its ventilation fans were installed only at its western portal. Its eastern portal is the only one of the 14 tunnel portals on the original turnpike that has no ventilation fan housing.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, sometimes shortened to Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road which is operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in Pennsylvania. It runs for 360 miles (580 km) across the state, connecting Pittsburgh and Philadelphia , and passes through four tunnels as it crosses the Appalachian ...
Laurel Hill Tunnel is a 4,541-foot-long (1,384 m) tunnel on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed and abandoned in 1964. It is bored through Laurel Ridge, spanning the border of Westmoreland and Somerset counties. Its western portal may be seen from the eastbound side of the Turnpike at milepost 99.3.
Completed at a cost of $17,203,000, the Sideling Hill bypass opened on November 26, 1968, and the former alignment through the tunnels became known as the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike. A rest area next to the ridge was a stop on Bill Clinton and Al Gore's post-convention bus tour in 1992.
Map of the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike; red line shows road open for pedestrians/cyclists, dashed red line shows closed-off portions of the road, red/white alternating show tunnels: Date: 13 March 2013: Source: Own work, data from U.S. Census Bureau