Gribblenation

In October 1961, the United States Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) authorized a southern extension of Interstate 79 from Washington, PA to Charleston, WV.  This nearly 160-mile addition to the interstate system in West Virginia didn't come as a surprise, but where it ended did.  The consensus was that the two-state extension of the Interstate would follow US 19 and end at the West Virginia Turnpike in Beckley.  After three years of lobbying by Pennsylvania and West Virginia - why and how did this change? History: When the Interstate Highway System was authorized in 1956 - a north-south route linking the Pittsburgh area to Erie, PA was included in the mileage.  This route would be known as Interstate 79 and terminated at Interstate 70 in Pittsburgh's Golden Triangle.  Interstate 70 would follow Pittsburgh's Parkway West to near Roslyn Farms and then head south to Washington, PA.  Alignment and designation changes throughout the 1960s would eventually have I-79...

If you are traveling on Interstate 79 North of Pittsburgh, you may notice the remnants of a set of off-and-on ramps at mile 100 just north of Exit 99 (US 422).  There's a story behind these ramps.  Forty years ago, these ramps were built specifically for two Boy Scout Jamborees that were held at Moraine State Park - in 1973 and 1977.  The ramps' purpose was to provide access to the north shore of Lake Arthur where the bulk of the festivities and campsite for the Jamboree was located.  ( Lawrence County Memories has a great write-up and map of the festivities on its site.) Not long after the Jamboree ended the ramps were abandoned.  There are still remnants of the Boy Scout Ramps today. Above: Sattelite view of the Boy Scout Jamboree Ramps.  Below: A view of the ramps from I-79 South. You can make out the abandoned ramps in front of the grove of trees. (Adam Prince, 1998) The google street view image above gives a view along West Park Road w...

....thirty years later. PennDot opened bidding on the construction of two "missing" ramps at the I-79/Parkway West (I-279/US 22/30) interchange (Exits 59A-B) in suburban Pittsburgh. I say "missing" because these ramps were not planned for in the original construction of the highway in the 1970s. The missing ramps are from I-79 South to US 22/30 West and US 22/30 East to I-79 North. Construction should start this fall and the ramps should open in 2009. When the interchange was constructed in the early 1970s, I-79 actually was planned to actually take the ramp from I-79 onto the inbound Parkway West (I-279 North). I-279 would continue straight on what is now I-79 North today. But that changed when I-79 and 279 switched alignments in 1972. Anyways, the thinking at the time was that connections from I-79 South to the Airport and from the Airport to I-79 North could be done via PA 60 -- then a rural two lane road -- and connecting at what is now Exit 60. The hop...