After a six year hiatus, the second second SEPA Road Enthusiast Meet was held today. I'd like to thank all who attended and for making the trip for the second meet in the Greater Philadelphia area.
The meet began as usual at 12 PM at the Sly Fox Brewhouse & Eatery, home of the Route 113 Indian Pale Ale, on what else, PA 113 in Phoenixville. Some of the attendees did partake of the Route 113 IPA, or as PennDOT would call it the SR 0113 Indian Pale Ale, which just might be the official beverage for road enthusiasts over the age of 21. The food was good as well as the conversations. Many of the attendees brought road-related materials to peruse as well as to keep: Adam Froehlig - various state official maps from Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania; Doug Kerr - I-87 Northway maps; H. B. Elkins - goodie bags full of Kentucky maps and other Kentucky Transportation Cabinet paraphernalia and I brought a planning map for the Keystone State's Interstate System from the early 1960s which I had acquired from eBay in the mid-2000s.
After lunch, we hopped in our cars and followed PA 23 to the first stop which was at the Philadelphia Traffic Management Center in the PennDOT District 6-0 headquarters in King of Prussia. Thanks go to Len Pundt, who worked for PennDOT, who helped arrange the tour. The TMC, which was called the Traffic Control Center when I toured it in 2004, has been upgraded and now includes two video walls with feeds from traffic cameras around the Philadelphia area as well as content from the Internet and TV. In what seems to have become a constant in Pennsylvania meets that involve visiting a traffic management center, we were witness to an accident on the Platt Bridge tying up traffic.
Continuing east on PA 23, we stopped at the Schuylkill Parkway overpass just north of Bridgeport. Len described what was to have happened with that project, which would have been the eastern end of the "Goat Path" Expressway. Len gave us some background on this abandoned project, which is now used as a driver training course for the State Police. He also explained how PennDOT got into the funding predicament which led to it cancelling this and numerous other expressway projects around the Commonwealth in 1977. One of the points he made was that cancelling these projects did initially save money, but now there is no way to build these to solve the traffic issues of the 21st Century because right-of-way acquisition alone would be astronomically high to carve these highways through dense urbanized areas.
We bid Len adieu and took I-276/PA Turnpike eastbound to PA 309 northbound to observe some of the rehabilitation project that has been taking place since 2003. As soon as joining the Fort Washington Expressway, the attendees could see a vastly improved expressway from the one that had been serving commuters since it was built as a new route for US 309. We encountered the last remaining section to be undergoing rehabilitation heading north and exited in the construction zone at Norristown Road to go west to Bethlehem Pike which was the pre-expressway route of US 309. Traveling north to Cedar Hill Road, which crosses over PA 309, allowed us to view the progress on reconstruction of the northern-most segment.
After stopping at the overpass to see the work, we continued northeast to PA 63 then turned northwest to go to the intersection with US 202 to see the progress on the US 202 Parkway project. A new alignment is underway at PA 63 and work is taking place south along the current alignment. We passed some of the work along US 202 as we headed back to the Sly Fox Brewhouse & Eatery where we said our farewells, and headed to our respective destinations.
When White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced in May that the next G-20 Summit would be held in Pittsburgh, there was more than a few snickers from the White House Press Corp. And why not, what does anyone there know about finance and banking or surviving an economic downturn? After all, it is an area where people pay a fair market value for a house. How quaint!
The reason "City of Champions" was chosen by President Obama was due to the trips he made through the area during his 2008 presidential campaign. He saw how it had morphed from center of steel production to one with a more diversified economic base focused on bio-medical (University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Pennsylvania Health System), financial (PNC Financial, Bank of New York/Mellon), and high-tech (Carnegie Mellon University) industries. Fortunately, the industrial fore-fathers of the city were not misers and gave back to their community in the form of institutions such as libraries and universities from which Pittsburgh could pull it self up by its bootstraps and start over.
Dignitaries began to arrive on Wednesday which prompted rolling roadblocks on the Parkway West between Pittsburgh International Airport and Downtown. The motorcades passed through the US 22/US 30-PA 60 interchange project, which is partially funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which was passed to dig (no pun intended) the country out of the global recession which would be discussed the following two days.
While the leaders of the 20 largest economies and the European Union were arriving, so were the protesters.
Members of Greenpeace repelled off the West End Bridge with a banner protesting the lack of attention paid to the environment by these leaders. Five others tried to do the same on the Fort Pitt Bridge, but were quickly apprehended. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl deputized 1,000 men and women from police departments as far away as Miami and as close as Johnstown, which in addition to National Guardsmen and state police troopers, made up a force of more than 3,000 officers.
The world's leaders had an easier time getting around the city than the denizens. Only residents, with a driver's license with proof of a Downtown address, delivery trucks (with deliveries made between 5 AM and 7 AM), taxis, hotel shuttles, armored cars, ACCESS vehicles, and medical suppliers were allowed into the Golden Triangle. Three police checkpoints were established on the Smithfield Street Bridge at PA 837/West Carson Street, Fifth Avenue at Ross Street, and the Roberto Clemente Bridge and Isabella Street but motorists could exit anywhere. Ramps from I-279, I-376, and I-579 and other bridges and street were barricaded.
The two-day summit went off without a hitch, and Pittsburgh was able to do something no other city could: host a bloodless G-20. Police arrested only 193 people, a few minor fires were reported, and some minor damage to stores occurred. Only about 5,000 protesters came which were outnumbered by the nearly 6,000 law enforcement personnel. Needless to say crime dropped steeply, as did the need for paramedics which for times every ambulance in the city was idle. Perhaps the most surprising was the thousands of police vehicles, being driven by mostly out-of-towners, managed to navigate the labyrinthine of city streets without a single accident.
VisitPittsburgh hopes that the G-20 Summit helps tourism and attracting conventions. The city was awarded another international gathering not long after the conclusion of the summit. Pittsburgh will be the North American host city for the 2010 United Nations World Environment Day. Perhaps the highest praise came from the Italian-born songwriter, singer, former model, and current French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy who said, "I think I wish I could stay a little longer because we only stay one-and-a-half days," and added "But I think it's beautiful." I don't think VisitPittsburgh could have asked for a better spokeswoman.
How appropriate is it that Super Bowl 43 is won by the team from the city where PA Turnpike 43 will end...someday...hopefully. Many will debate whether this was the best Super Bowl of all time, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. I would say it was, but then again I am partial because my team won. Although, I would have much rather seen that 20-7 score last until the game clock read all zeros instead of the roller coaster ending.
Congratulations goes to the team, staff, and especially Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II, both of whom I have had the chance to meet. Art II was the commencement speaker at my college graduation which is also the summer home of the now six-time Super Bowl Champion Steelers. They were only four-time champions when I attended and lived in the dorm named after the family.
The win gave the team that was the "first to win three" and "first to win four" the title of "first to win six." Not only that, but Mike Tomlin becomes the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and did it sooner than his predecessors Bill Cowher and the great Chuck Noll who delivered two-thirds of the total.
Unfortunately, we were denied a chance for a "Turnpike Bowl" when the Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship. I congratulate them for a great game and also Head Coach Ken Whisenhunt and Assistant Head Coach Russ Grimm (both former Steelers coaches) for what they have done with that organization. I would have rooted for Arizona if they were playing anyone but Pittsburgh.
Only four months removed from that celebration, the Penguins stepped up to the challenge. The 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs saw them take on their rivals from the other end of the Turnpike, the Flyers, then the Washington Capitals, and the Carolina Hurricanes to win the Eastern Conference for the second year in a row. However, it was déjà vu all over again when they went on to face the Detroit Red Wings who knocked them out on home ice to win the Cup in 2008.
No one figured this team to make it into the playoffs, let alone to the Cup Finals, as they manged to fall five points out of the playoff hunt until a little-known coach by the name of Dan Bylsma was hired to right the ship. Some way, some how, he managed to unite the "young bucks" and the "old hands" for a common goal (no pun intended). While this year's series began the same way, with the Wings up 2-0, the end was much different. The Pens became the first visiting team to win a decisive Game 7 in one of the four North American major professional sports leagues since the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. It provided a little payback as the Pens hoisted the Stanley Cup at the Joe Louis Arena.
Pittsburgh became the first city to win a Super Bowl and Stanley Cup in the same calendar year, Dan Bylsma became the second rookie head coach to win a Cup, and the team was the first since the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning to come from down two games to win the series. While this was playing out in Detroit, the Hershey Bears of the AHL were winning the Calder Cup in Winnipeg. To steal a line from "Badger" Bob Johnson, who led the Pens to their first Cup win, "It's [was] a great day for hockey [in the Commonwealth]!"
So in three-quarters of a year, Pennsylvania can lay claim to the 2008 World Series Champions, the 2008 Super Bowl Champions, and now the 2008-2009 Stanley Cup Champions. Going back a year, the 2008 Arena Bowl Champions in the Philadelphia Soul. So who is next in the Commonwealth?
Today was the second State College meet but unlike the first edition, Mother Nature gave us a rain-free day. I'd like to thank all who attended and for making the trip for the second meet in Happy Valley.
The meet began at 12 PM at Hoss's Steak & Sea on Business US 322 (North Atherton Street). Food was good as well as the conversations. Many of the attendees brought road-related materials to peruse as well as to keep: Steve Alpert - Florida Turnpike maps; H.B. Elkins - new Kentucky and West Virginia maps; Doug Kerr - I-87 Northway maps; and I brought some recent officials from Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania for anyone who needed to fill gaps in their collections.
After lunch, we hopped in our cars and drove down via former US 220/US 322 to PA 550 to the first stop of the 2005 Meet to see the completed I-99. Where the two roads cross is where some of the acid rock problems had occurred, and even today the large retaining pond that was constructed on the south side of the Interstate to catch run-off was partially filled.
Continuing down former US 220/US 322, which is now known as SR 3042, we stopped at the top of Skytop Mountain which overlooks the Interstate everyone loves to hate. This area is where construction crews discovered the pyritic rock which stalled work on I-99 until a solution was devised which included removing the disturbed rock and keeping the remainder at the location. It is easy to see where the undisturbed acid rock is located as it was covered with mesh then rocks to prevent erosion.
We continued on SR 3042 to SR 3040 to Port Matilda, passing through the trumpet interchange where "END" signage still exist for Alternate US 220. With no mention of that route on new signage on I-80 or before the trumpet, I'd expect it to be decommissioned before the next PennDOT official map is released.
It was in the now traffic-thinned Port Matilda where we took I-99 north back to State College. The view from the alignment as it climbs Skytop is fantastic and will be spectacular in Fall. We got to see in greater clarity the acid rock remediation as we headed back to the restaurant.
A few of the attendees had to leave, and the rest of us continued into State College on Business US 322 and then north on PA 26 to the southern stub of the Bellefonte Bypass. It is now a ramp onto I-99/US 220, but there were plans to continue it south to the end of the US 322 expressway north of Lewistown.
Following northbound I-99/US 220/PA 26, we turned off onto the former route of 26 right before the current interchange with I-80. There is earth moving taking place for the relocation of Jacksonville Road which is part of the plan for the future I-80/I-99 directional Y. After which we head back to Hoss's where we said our farewells, and headed to our respective destinations.
Time flies when you're splitting atoms. It's hard to imagine that it has been three decades to the day since the worst nuclear power accident in the United States took place. For ten days the residents of the Mid-State were teetering on the brink of disaster. Luckily the outcome was only a partial meltdown of the TMI-2 reactor core, and far less disastrous as it could have been. By April 9 the worst was over and the residents of the surrounding area could stop walking on egg shells.
