Skip to main content

Allegheny County's Red Belt - Not Much To It

Image
By
Allegheny County's Red Belt serves as a northern arc connecting communities between the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers along the northern-most reaches of the county.  It is the shortest and most remote of the county's five belt routes.

For the entire photo set on flickr: head here.

The start of Allegheny County's Red Belt in Leetsdale.

The Route:

The Red Belt begins at PA 65 in Leetsdale and, after winding through the community of Fair Oaks, begins a rural journey all the way to its eastern terminus in Tarentum.  It is a quiet, meandering two-lane journey past country churches, farms, and a handful of larger subdivisions.  

Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church - one of many rural churches found along the Red Belt.

A faded American flag mural on a barn near Culmersville.

The Red Belt does not pass through any towns outside of a random crossroads.  Its intersection with Interstate 79 in Warrendale has some commercial development, but that quickly transitioned to higher-end subdivisions on the edges of suburban Pittsburgh.  East of the Treesdale golf community, the Red Belt returns to a completely rural setting until its final half mile into Tarentum.

The Red Belt intersects with Saxonburg Boulevard in the patch community of Culmersville.

The Eastern End of the Red Belt at Freeport Road.  In the background, PA 366 crosses the Allegheny River via the Tarentum Bridge.

Fortunately, the entirety of Red Belt was well-signed; I did not miss any turns during the 33-mile drive.

All photos taken by the post author - September 14, 2025.

Conclusion:

I was listening to the Pittsburgh Steelers playing the Seattle Seahawks during my drive that September afternoon.  And I thought to myself, what was more pointless - the Red Belt or the Steelers defense that Sunday?  The Red Belt really does not provide any value to a driver.  It is slow - I do not believe I saw any speeds over 40 miles per hour.  And to me, it didn't really connect to anything.

This is pretty much the entirety of the Red Belt.  Quiet, rural, with a handful of subdivisions.

I suppose an argument can be made that you can use the Red Belt to avoid tolls on the Pennsylvania Turnpike between I-79 and PA 28.  But why use the Red Belt when just to the north runs PA 228, and that road has been improved to four lanes from PA 8 to I-79.

If Allegheny County wished to remove this route, I don't think anyone would notice.

The Blue Belt is all that remains for me to complete.  The Blue Belt runs the closest to Downtown Pittsburgh - and it runs by Page's Dairy - so it already has that going for it.

Site Navigation:
Further Reading:
Sources & Links:


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more