News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

Freeway Stubs Near Pittsburgh Airport ?

Started by coldshoulder, February 05, 2016, 01:20:00 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

coldshoulder

I had the occasion to travel near the Pittsburgh Airport recently, and I am wondering about two separate freeway stubs in the general vicinity.  Perhaps someone knowledgeable can fill me in, or at least provide a guess...?

1.  When the new airport terminal was constructed, and then after the (now)-376 Freeway was built on its current alignment looping south of the airport, ramps were later constructed that connect 376 with Clinton Rd./Flaugherty Run Rd., just south of the Business-376 exit/entrance ramps with those two roads.  But within the rather wide alignment of these ramps there are stub ends of what appears to be a planned extension of some kind of freeway/expressway....but to where?

2.  And just to the east of that location, on Business-376, there used to be, back in the 70's and 80's, stub ends just east of International Drive.  These concrete stub ends continued for a very short distance due east, while the expressway dipped slighty south of them to form the present (and now perhaps ever-lasting) alignment.   These stub ends existed for years, but the pavement has actually been removed in the last 5 years or so.  One can still see the cleared land/ROW where they were, but they are just a memory now. This appeared to possibly be part of a long-range plan to extend that freeway/expressway due east, perhaps to somehow tie-in with I-79 just south of the Ohio River, where 79 bends severely to the east, and then comes back west before it crosses PA-51 and then the Ohio River...?

You're just like crosstown traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I got better things on the other side of town


Mr_Northside

Quote from: coldshoulder on February 05, 2016, 01:20:00 PM
2.  And just to the east of that location, on Business-376, there used to be, back in the 70's and 80's, stub ends just east of International Drive.  These concrete stub ends continued for a very short distance due east, while the expressway dipped slighty south of them to form the present (and now perhaps ever-lasting) alignment.   This appeared to possibly be part of a long-range plan to extend that freeway/expressway due east, perhaps to somehow tie-in with I-79 just south of the Ohio River, where 79 bends severely to the east, and then comes back west before it crosses PA-51 and then the Ohio River...?

Yup.... I'm not sure exactly where it would have tied into I-79, but that planned freeway was the reason there were originally missing movements at the Parkway West / I-79 interchange.  The freeway extension plan was abandoned ages ago, but the SB I-79 -> WB Parkway West / EB Parkway West -> NB I-79 were only built a few years ago (I guess even that has now been even longer than it feels)
I don't have opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything

coldshoulder

#2
Hoss6884....yes, exactly (For situation #1).  I haven't yet learned how to post map links.
You're just like crosstown traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I got better things on the other side of town

qguy

The ramp stubs were originally intended ot connect to flyover ramps that would've completed the movements for a freeway-to-freeway connection with Business I-376, northbound I-376 to southbound B-376 and vice versa (northbound B-376 to southbound I-376).

Before the current ("new") terminals at the airport were built, the passenger terminals were located off of what is now B-376, where the remaining at-grade intersections are. Originally, the plan was to grade-separate what is now B-376 and make that roadway a full freeway through (past) the airport area. When the airport authorities decided to construct an all-new passenger facility west of the existing facility, PennDOT decided it would need to construct a new-terrain roadway around the western and southern sides of the airport area. That roadway is now I-376. And what is now B-376 would not then need to be entirely grade-separated.

That first interchange on B-376, the diamond interchange, existed prior to construction of what is now I-376. PennDOT originally planned to bypass it with all-freeway-to-freeway ramps and keep the diamond interchange for the local connection, but in the end decided that letting the diamond interchange do double-duty would suffice (providing the movements for both the local access and the movements I mentioned in the first paragraph), especially considering that PennDOT had decided that B-376 did not need to be entirely grade-separated.

CanesFan27

Quote from: Mr_Northside on February 05, 2016, 03:07:54 PM
Quote from: coldshoulder on February 05, 2016, 01:20:00 PM
2.  And just to the east of that location, on Business-376, there used to be, back in the 70's and 80's, stub ends just east of International Drive.  These concrete stub ends continued for a very short distance due east, while the expressway dipped slighty south of them to form the present (and now perhaps ever-lasting) alignment.   This appeared to possibly be part of a long-range plan to extend that freeway/expressway due east, perhaps to somehow tie-in with I-79 just south of the Ohio River, where 79 bends severely to the east, and then comes back west before it crosses PA-51 and then the Ohio River...?

Yup.... I'm not sure exactly where it would have tied into I-79, but that planned freeway was the reason there were originally missing movements at the Parkway West / I-79 interchange.  The freeway extension plan was abandoned ages ago, but the SB I-79 -> WB Parkway West / EB Parkway West -> NB I-79 were only built a few years ago (I guess even that has now been even longer than it feels)

Description from Bruce Harper on an old mt post about this subject in late 1998:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searchin/misc.transport.road/%22Beers$20School%22/misc.transport.road/kCkav63arqI/hm9p1pjm5BYJ

The new airport radically changed the face of roads in Moon and S. Fayette
townships.

When the Beaver Valley Expressway was built in the late '60s, there
was a lot of discussion about how to bypass the airport congestion.
As planned, the Expressway would have left the Parkway West somewhere
in the vicinity of Montour Heights Country Club (now the Cherrington
office park), just south of the current Thorn Run interchange.  The
new road would have been to the north of the (now vacant) parking lots
across the Parkway from the airport terminal (through the area now
populated by the office park and Royce Hotel).  It would have come up
through Port Vue Drive and hit Beers School Road where the adult
book shop is, just down from the USAir Credit Union.  It would have
continued west (the car rental place next to the Allegheny Inn was
cleared for this), skirting behind Rosemont Estates (the subdivision
behind the car wash) and tieing in with the new Expressway just beyond
the cargo buildings.  The short sections of four-lane road that extend
beyond the jog in the highway indicate where the connection would be.

For some reason, the plans were put on an extended hold.  Although
property was acquired (such as the parcel on Beers School and several
houses on Port Vue [a high school friend had to move from one of the
houses that was condemned]), the project lanquished for years and years.
the section of road that was built from the end of the Parkway at
Beers School Road was only a "temporary" solution until the bypass was
built; almost 30 years later it is still in service.

Of course, all this was rendered moot when plans for a new airport terminal
were announced.  Because the new terminal was to be west of the present
terminal (and beyond and between major runways), it was determined that
an entirely new highway would be needed to serve the new airport.  With
that, the death knell was sounded for White Swan Park (another small but
active amusement park done in by development) and the current route of
PA 60 was laid out.

Of course, before all this, the construction of the Greater Pittsburgh
Airport on the Bell Dairy Farm and the extension of the Parkway West
to serve it really changed the face of roads in that area of Allegheny
County.  Lots of small "farm to market" roads were severed, leaving
sections of roads with names that didn't make sense (Moon Clinton Rd.,
Moon Enlow Road, Coraopolis Imperial Road, etc.).  The expansion of
the airport with the construction of a new runway (the one roughly
parallel to the Beaver Valley Expressway) added some new roads in the
area and changed some others around.  I remember driving through a
section of the airport to reach Moon Clinton Road, then heading over
to Imperial on PA 978 (now no longer in existance; the two long, straight
roads in the middle of the airport are now off limits).

I grew up in Moon Township in the '60s and '70s (graduated from Moon High
in 1973) and covered a lot of that territory in the summers between
college semesters as a circulation driver for the _NEWS_ out of Hopwell.
I watched the construction of the Expressway bridge over the Ohio River
at Vanport during weekly visits to my grandmother, who lived about four
blocks from the Vanport interchange (which pretty much wiped out most
of Vanport).

Since Mom moved to Blacksburg two years ago (proceeded by my in-laws from
Neville Island about 5 years ago), we haven't really been back for a
visit.  This year, the family spent Thanksgiving in Slippery Rock with
my wife's sister and her family.  We detoured off I-79 on the trip home,
via Neville Island (nice complex someone is building on the 'Poison Park'),
Coraopolis, and Moon.  It was kind of sad to see how the new airport has
changed Moon (my sons thought the acres of abandoned airport parking lots
would be a great place to ride their go-kart).

To wrap up this long post, I'll pose another question.  As we headed out
the (old) Parkway, there was some major construction going on to build a
large interchange near Scalley's and the road up the hill to the cemetary.
It was difficult to determine just what all this work was for, so if
someone would clue me in, I would appreciate it.

coldshoulder

#5
Thanks to all who replied.

qguy, your explanation of those stub ends was pretty much what I thought after thoroughly reviewing the Google Maps view of the area.  But there's one additional section of concrete ramp that I still can't understand:

On the diamond interchange exit ramp from Business-376 Southbound/Eastbound to Clinton Rd./Flaugherty Run Rd., right before approaching that surface street, an "auxiliary" ramp section veers west to connect with the I-376 Southbound on-ramp.  This certainly seems to be a wasted, or duplicated movement;  i.e., why would a I-376 southbound traveler exit to Business-376, then exit at Flaugherty Run Rd, then veer back onto this ramp back to I-376-South?  And if one did incorrectly exit to Business-376, then exited to Flaugherty Run Rd., they could turn right, then make a another right quickly onto the southbound I-376 on-ramp.  The existence of what I call this auxiliary section of ramp seems strange to me.

And CanesFan27, your cut and paste from a Bruce Harper 1998 post did shed some light on Part 2 of my original question, but many of the landmarks he references are either no longer standing, or have been re-named, or re-purposed; so it was a bit difficult to completely comprehend.  But thank you for providing that.  Although it did seem incomplete in the sense that it referenced from the stubs ends I was referrring to/asking about, but continuing eastward only to somewhere near the Montour Heights Country Club, and not any further....perhaps to just connect back in with the mainline Parkway West, in effect a proposed section of expressway just north of the present Business-376 alignment from the eastern end of the airport back to the stubs I was referring to...?

Any further clarification or confirmation of these thoughts would be appreciated.


You're just like crosstown traffic
All you do is slow me down
And I got better things on the other side of town

Mr_Northside

Quote from: coldshoulder on February 09, 2016, 10:01:41 PM
On the diamond interchange exit ramp from Business-376 Southbound/Eastbound to Clinton Rd./Flaugherty Run Rd., right before approaching that surface street, an "auxiliary" ramp section veers west to connect with the I-376 Southbound on-ramp.  This certainly seems to be a wasted, or duplicated movement;  i.e., why would a I-376 southbound traveler exit to Business-376, then exit at Flaugherty Run Rd, then veer back onto this ramp back to I-376-South?  And if one did incorrectly exit to Business-376, then exited to Flaugherty Run Rd., they could turn right, then make a another right quickly onto the southbound I-376 on-ramp.  The existence of what I call this auxiliary section of ramp seems strange to me.

Yeah... that does seem unnecessary... I can't come up with the reasoning for that.
I don't have opinions anymore. All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything

VTGoose

Quote from: coldshoulder on February 09, 2016, 10:01:41 PM

And CanesFan27, your cut and paste from a Bruce Harper 1998 post did shed some light on Part 2 of my original question, but many of the landmarks he references are either no longer standing, or have been re-named, or re-purposed; so it was a bit difficult to completely comprehend.  But thank you for providing that.  Although it did seem incomplete in the sense that it referenced from the stubs ends I was referrring to/asking about, but continuing eastward only to somewhere near the Montour Heights Country Club, and not any further....perhaps to just connect back in with the mainline Parkway West, in effect a proposed section of expressway just north of the present Business-376 alignment from the eastern end of the airport back to the stubs I was referring to...?

Wow, nice that someone found something I wrote years ago was still useful. To update, yes the plan was only to provide a freeway "bypass" of the traffic congestion at and around the airport terminal and all the related businesses along Beers School Road (now University Blvd.). If you look at the Google map of the area, there are still some landmarks that I referenced (Port Vue Drive and Rosemont Drive). Kenny Ross Toyota now occupies the strip of land that was cleared for the new road. You can draw a pretty much straight line from there west to where the stubs are (were). In the other direction, what is now a large office park around Rouser Road is there in part because the neighborhood that was in that area was pretty much razed for the coming road. It would have tied in with the Parkway West about where the Coraopolis Heights overpass is located. If you zoom the Google satellite view out to 200m, you can see curves in the existing B-376 near the stubs and at Cherrington -- the new road would have gone from curve to curve in a simple arc.

Bruce in Blacksburg (I'm BAAAACK!)

"Get in the fast lane, grandma!  The bingo game is ready to roll!"

Sykotyk

Quote from: Mr_Northside on February 10, 2016, 05:38:52 PM
Quote from: coldshoulder on February 09, 2016, 10:01:41 PM
On the diamond interchange exit ramp from Business-376 Southbound/Eastbound to Clinton Rd./Flaugherty Run Rd., right before approaching that surface street, an "auxiliary" ramp section veers west to connect with the I-376 Southbound on-ramp.  This certainly seems to be a wasted, or duplicated movement;  i.e., why would a I-376 southbound traveler exit to Business-376, then exit at Flaugherty Run Rd, then veer back onto this ramp back to I-376-South?  And if one did incorrectly exit to Business-376, then exited to Flaugherty Run Rd., they could turn right, then make a another right quickly onto the southbound I-376 on-ramp.  The existence of what I call this auxiliary section of ramp seems strange to me.

Yeah... that does seem unnecessary... I can't come up with the reasoning for that.

Only reason I can figure is that maybe during construction, they had opened the new freeway PA60 to the south of the airport, but hadn't finished the flyover ramp from PA60 to BUS PA 60, so all traffic still followed BUS PA 60 to that exit, where they slowed, turned right on a dedicated non-stop ramp onto the new PA 60 southbound. Northbound traffic would still proceed to the interchange and make the left to get back on old BUS PA 60 to get back to the original PA60.

As a kid, I was down in the area 2 or 3 times during and after construction and remember traffic being a bit of a PITA for my parents or relatives driving. Especially the southeast corner where the new ramps and bridges were being built and was amazed seeing such huge construction taking place. First time to the airport was the old terminal entrance, but I know the 2nd or 3rd time, the new terminal was open. But I remember construction all along there even once the new side had opened.

Sykotyk

Quote from: VTGoose on March 10, 2016, 02:28:29 PM
Wow, nice that someone found something I wrote years ago was still useful. To update, yes the plan was only to provide a freeway "bypass" of the traffic congestion at and around the airport terminal and all the related businesses along Beers School Road (now University Blvd.). If you look at the Google map of the area, there are still some landmarks that I referenced (Port Vue Drive and Rosemont Drive). Kenny Ross Toyota now occupies the strip of land that was cleared for the new road. You can draw a pretty much straight line from there west to where the stubs are (were). In the other direction, what is now a large office park around Rouser Road is there in part because the neighborhood that was in that area was pretty much razed for the coming road. It would have tied in with the Parkway West about where the Coraopolis Heights overpass is located. If you zoom the Google satellite view out to 200m, you can see curves in the existing B-376 near the stubs and at Cherrington -- the new road would have gone from curve to curve in a simple arc.

Bruce in Blacksburg (I'm BAAAACK!)



Yeah, it would've been a bypass built basically to handle an interchange and remove frontage businesses and crossroads at the airport.

It always appeared, as a kid, that the road 'changed' when it got right by the airport. Like it was never meant to just be a few lights and back to freeway. Makes sense seeing the aerial view and descriptions. But, as stated, the new terminal entrance and new highway negated the need for that bypass, and it just never came.



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.