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PrintHARRISBURG -- If it seems like there's been a lot of reconstruction going on along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, it's because there has.
Since 2000, a total of 28 projects have been completed, gotten underway or are still in the planning stages along the 360-mile main line from Ohio to New Jersey and the 110-mile Northeastern Extension from Norristown up to Scranton.
PG chartTurnpike officials call it a "statewide total reconstruction initiative." Road work has been going on for 10 years, but turnpike officials recently released a map of all projects on the agenda until 2020. The work includes replacing bridges over the Allegheny and Susquehanna rivers.
The first redone section, from mileposts 94 to 99 in Western Pennsylvania, was completed in 2000 and cost $31 million. Instead of just "milling," or removing a few top inches of pavement, the reconstruction goes all the way down to "subgrade," aka dirt -- some in areas of the original turnpike, which opened in 1940 from Carlisle to Irwin.
The price for each section includes engineering and design, acquisition of rights of way and relocation of utility lines in some cases, labor, equipment and the cost of asphalt, concrete and other materials.
The cost of a total rebuilding is obviously higher than just replacing a couple inches of surface pavement, but turnpike spokesman Bill Capone said the work will improve drainage so water doesn't get under the surface pavement and lead to early deterioration.
When the dirt roadbed is reached, six inches of stone "aggregate" is put down as a sub-base, and then topped by four inches of asphalt "permeable base."
That is topped by 10 inches of bituminous concrete; that is covered with five inches of "superpave" material.
In the sections that are being rebuilt, work also includes adding a third lane in each direction, meaning those areas of the turnpike will have three lanes eastbound and three lanes westbound, Mr. Capone said. Medians also are being widened.
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