Show new pittsburgh harrisburg H ar turn turnpike pike marks beginning of superhighway era by PERMAN HERMAN CROCKETT released by western newspaper New coaver union harrisburg LY PA passenger I 1 I 1 automobiles speed along at miles an nour hour their occupants unaware 0 of f an excessive rate of motion travel on a cur veless ribbon of concrete that goes through mountains instead of over them a highway without intersections or ralli railroad oad crossi crossings without billboards or hazards of snow ice and fog A dream of the future hardly pennsylvania will dedicate such a highway and open it to public travel sometime this tall fall it will be miles long connecting the city of pittsburgh in the western part of the state with harrisburg the capital near the east and plans are being made to extend it in an addi lional miles to philadelphia th the e road eliminates all the mountain hazards between the ohio river and delaware tidewater it will reduce by hours travel from the midwest to the eastern metropolises ses for truckers it will save as much as 15 hours time and an estimated 30 between two points compared to use of 0 the present roads since the beginning of the westward march of civilization across the united states the formidable mountain ridges of the appalachians have imposed natural barriers on travel and transportation between the atlantic seaboard and the middle middie west pennsylvanian Pennsyl two major east west highways solved the problem in a limited way previously the lincoln highway crossed the mountains directly on steep grades the other the william penn highway followed the winding juniata river to td its headwaters crossing one mountain and descending to pittsburgh through rolling hill country both routes have obvious limitations the former having many grades as steep as 8 and 0 per cent and the william penn having a few steep grades with many curves and a longer route between philadelphia and pittsburgh always there has been the dream of a better and shorter road one that would not add hundreds of miles to the journey by going around the mountains follows abandoned railroad the new turnpike follows the line of the old south penn railroad a project never completed it is a fourtane tour lane concrete shaft with east cast and west traffic separated by a 10 foot center parkway seven tunnels through the mountains prepared for the railroad are used to eliminate 1 grades in all there are seven miles of these tunnels every desire to insure safety comfort and speed has been installed huge tans fans will constantly supply an adequate amoun amount t of pure air the tunnels will be electrically lighted on the open pike all crossroads are carried either underneath or overhead direct cross flow Is avoided by means of looping ramps or cloverleaf intersections all interchanges ter changes banges are are so located that approaching pro aching traffic can look down on them and readily picture the layout there will be no traffic lights deceleration and acceleration lanes are provided at each these are 1200 feet long and are set parallel to and contiguous with the paving carved out of the mountains as a single project the road is not a merger of previous roads linked together it is all new the severest grade anywhere Is 3 per cent that jp M i r i pictured above is a section ol oj the new Pennsyl pennsylvania vaia turnpikes mile straightaway The diagram at the left shows a cloverleaf intersection which enables vehicles to enter or leave the highway without disrupting the normal flow of traffic 0 seven tunnels permit the highway 0 to pass through rather titan than over or around the appalachian mountains thereby eliminating one of the barriers that has confounded IOU transcontinental tra traffic effic W ever since since the first western march of the pioneers |