Entering the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Breeezewood, PA

Описание: Breezewood is a rather unique location in the Interstate Highway System, as it's the location of one of two Interstate gaps in the Northeast, wherein an Interstate travels along surface streets with traffic lights. Here, I-70 travels along a short stretch of US 30 to get between its own alignment coming up from Maryland and its entrance to the Pennsylvania Turnpike. (The other gap like this is I-78 in Jersey City, which travels for a few blocks on surface streets between the New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension and the Holland Tunnel.) The reason for this gap is because when the Interstate Highways Act was passed, it did not fund direct connections between Interstates and existing toll roads. This shows itself in several other gaps that exist on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, such as where the turnpike mainline crosses I-81 in Carlisle, where the Northeast Extension meets I-78 in Allentown and I-81 in Wilkes-Barre, and at I-79 at the Cranberry Interchange (filled in in 2003).

In addition, it's worth noting that the Breezewood Interchange and toll plaza weren't always at that location. Before 1968, the Breezewood Interchange was actually located where the long approach to the current toll plaza now begins. It was moved due to the opening of the Sideling Hill Bypass to get around two tunnels that lay east of here. This approach from US 30 to the toll plaza is the only stretch of the original alignment still in use by cars, with the rest now being used as a hiking trail.

Because of all this, if you're traveling from northbound/westbound I-70 to eastbound on the turnpike, you have to go through a very windy figure-8 route and cross over/under your previous path several times.