Background:
What is now known as Interstate 70 from Washington to New Stanton began as a connecting freeway for the region to the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  Construction began in 1953 and was completed in segments throughout the decade and finally completing in 1960.  In 1963, a small at-grade portion of the highway was improved in New Stanton which provided a seamless connection to the Turnpike.  The highway began as an Alternate routing of PA 71 and would later be added to the Interstate Highway System.  First as I-70S and in 1963, its current designation as I-70.

As the Interstate System, and specifically I-70, expanded, the road became a key route for trucks heading from the major ports and manufacturing hubs of the east to the west.  The narrow roadway - with its numerous exits to serve the many steel and manufacturing plants and communities within the valley - was quickly becoming overburdened.  The highway was out-of-date by the time it was completed in 1960.  The ramps, median, and right-of-way were built below the standards of the Pennsylvania Turnpike of nearly two decades earlier.  Many acceleration/deceleration ramps on what would become I-70 were less than 400' or ended at a stop sign.  The turnpike's minimum ramp acceleration/decelartion lane was 1200'.  The median was built at 4 feet compared to the turnpike's original grassy 10 feet median.  The turnpike was built with a 200 foot right of way vs. 80 feet for I-70. (1)  Many properties and businesses still sit less than 20 feet from the right lane of the highway.  In one instance (Exit 32B Westbound), a cemetery sits on a hillside less than 10 feet from the roadway. 

By the late 1970's, Interstate 70 through Washington and Westmoreland Counties was falling apart.  In March 1978, the situation was bad enough that truckers shut down the Interstate protesting the amount of potholes on the highway. (2)    Patch work improvements would be made to the road for the next decade, and it wasn't until the late 80s and the early 90s that many parts of the highway saw some safety improvements. 

The Plan & Related Projects:
Although not much is known on where the road would have gone or what it would entail, there are some clues to what the highway would have consisted of.  In the early 1970s, when the first small pieces of what would become the Mon-Fayette Expressway (PA 43) were being built, the final design for two of the northern segments (from current I-70 to Finleyville) were delayed because of uncertainty of where the proposed alignment of the new I-70 would go. (3)  By 1978, the ideas were still being milled about; however, many reasons including the PennDot financial crisis of that decade had shelved it. (2)

At the same time, a $30 million high level four lane bridge was being built between the towns of Donora and Monessen.  This bridge was part of a plan to directly connect Donora to Interstate 70.  The four lane road would also connect the two steel towns to the Mon Valley Expressway.  The bridge opened in 1974 spanning between PA 906 just north of Monessen and on a new PA 837 south of Donora.  The bridge would sit very sparingly used until the connection south to I-70 was completed in 1989.  The short 1.6 mile divided highway, known as the C. Vance DeiCas highway, linked the bridge at PA 906 to the PA 201/I-70 Interchange in Pricedale.  After 20 years of promises, Donora finally had its link to the Interstate.  The connection to what is now the Mon-Fayette Expressway never came to be. 

What's Been Done Since:
30 some odd years later, plans for a new Interstate cutting through the Mid-Mon Valley has long been abandoned.  It wasn't until the late 80s and early 90s that many improvements were made to I-70.  Resurfacing and replacing the 'box-girder' median with a concrete barrier took place throughout the early 1990s.  The Speers Bridge which crosses the Monongahela and the highway from the Speers Interchange to the North Belle Vernon Interchanges were also rehabilitated in the early 1990s.  In the late 90's, a one half mile section from North Belle Vernon to near Pricedale was complete rebuilt.  In this specific project, two bridges were rebuilt from the ground up and the median was increased to 10 feet.  The most recent improvement was the widening of the Smithton High Level Bridge.  The nearly 50 year old bridge was expanded to also include a 10 foot median.  A $10 million overhaul of the PA 201/Pricedale Interchange was being studied by the state in 2003. (4)  Unfortunatley, the road is still far from modern standards or let alone standards of the 1960s. 

The biggest change to the region's landscape was the completion of the Mon-Fayette Expressway from US 40 in Brownsville to PA 51 in Large.  Completed from US 40 to I-70 in 1990 and then to PA 51 in 2002, the toll road's opening was the conclusion of a nearly 40 year struggle for highway improvements in the Mid-Mon Valley.  However, this one road is far from solving the region's transportation and economic problems.

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Page Created: January 8, 2005
Last Updated: October 25, 2010

© 2005-10 William Lawson
If you have any information that can improve the historical accuracy of this site please contact me.
I-70 shield courtesy of Chris Jordan