Pennsylvania Roads - US 219

US 219


More wind farming on US 219, this time in Pennsylvania. If you're wondering why I say "more", visit West Virginia.


The RIDOT Turnpike sign... oh, this joke is getting old. Sorry, Rhode Island, I'll lay off ya from now on. This non-cutout sign is on a temporary assembly where US 219 begins its first freeway, the Somerset Bypass. There is currently reconstruction work in the northbound lanes, so where traffic normally enters the stub end of the freeway (at this onramp, which would have been/may become the NB Somerset exit), it now crosses the freeway and temporarily heads up the would-be southbound onramp... right back to the old alignment, the Berlin Plank Road. If the contractors were SMART, they... actually, they wouldn't have let you go straight, because they're also working on the Plank Road for this stretch, so in fact it's necessary for traffic to do this little dance.


Where traffic is forced off Berlin Plank Rd. to turn onto the freeway (and then off again and back to the Plank Rd.).


The NB onramp (i.e. the continuation of US 219 north) is also under reconstruction, so traffic must temporarily use the intended NB offramp as the way onto and across the freeway. Luckily, part of the ramp still has its original untraveled concrete.


Looking southward at the freeway stub's southbound lanes. The stub ends out of sight around a corner.


Now looking northward from the SB onramp as we head back up the wrong way, you see the never-used southbound lanes in the foreground (in concrete), and the temporarily closed northbound lanes in the background (in asphalt).


North of Berlin Plank Rd., heading down the SB offramp that has always been in use, with one final glance at the SB stub (which is much longer than the NB stub because the SB offramp is north of the bridge, while the NB onramp is south of it).


US 219 is temporarily a Super-2 up to around the Turnpike overpass, where northbound traffic can get back over to its side and have a passing lane again. The widened SB offramp here is about to let NB traffic merge into the southbound lanes. The gore point to the right is where the SB stub begins.


Entering the northern end of the Ebensburg Bypass, which is also the other end of the freeway that began way down in Somerset. The first and third photos look northward at the small stubs, while the second photo looks southward where US 219 SB merges into the freeway lanes.

SB at PA 286.


NB, with the last photo at 1st St. in Dubois. The Blue Detour is for any emergency closing a particular stretch of I-80. A limited palette is used for hundreds of detours around the state, many of which run concurrently to bypass multiple exits.


SB from Brockway to Dubois. The urgent message signs all seem to have state-name shields on them.


Before entering Brockway, US 219 NB passes under a railroad and a pair of malformed signs. The white border should be of uniform width, and the corners should be green. Also, the shields don't need black outlines, though I like the effect.


SB at Snowdrift Rd., an old alignment of US 219.


NB heading toward Ridgway, courtesy Doug Kerr. Trucks have too steep a hill to descend on 219, so there is a special truck route built to the east of town that ends at PA 120. What makes this truck route special is that it's northbound-only; apparently the hill isn't too steep for trucks to try to climb it.


Black button copy at that special truck route. Look at the copy that was replaced - the K and the 7. On all three signs. K7. What's the covert message I'm not getting?


NB from US 6 to an old alignment on the north side of the Kinzua River (from the original bridge that was there).


Owens Way EB at the southern end of the Bradford bypass, also courtesy Doug Kerr. US 219 has two different freeway sections, and if they ever gets connected and receive an Interstate designation like US 220 did to the east, you could see I-79/I-67/I-99/I-81 as the eastward progression.


NB courtesy Doug Kerr and gone now.


The end of PA 46 NB, once more from Doug. Note that 46 ends at 346. Whoever made these signs must have failed spatial relations in kindergarten.


Southbound over my shoulder.


More NB button copy and the breakup of the PA 346 duplex.


The last of the SB photos. Because I was trying to take these while traveling northbound, click the last photo to see the full assembly courtesy Doug Kerr.

Into New York on US 219
Into Maryland on US 219
To the Penna. Turnpike, I-70 and I-76
Onto PA 286
To I-80
Onto PA 28
Down to PA 120
US 219 on Jeff Kitsko's pahighways.com
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