page_title: Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike
section_title: Later uses
hierarchical_section_title: Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike / Later uses
caption_attribution_description: Pic of SNAP testing of rumble strips. Took myself 08/17/2006
context_page_description: The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike is the common name of a 13-mile stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike that was bypassed in 1968 when a modern stretch opened to ease traffic congestion in the tunnels. In this case, the Sideling Hill Tunnel and Rays Hill Tunnel were bypassed, as was one of the Turnpike's travel plazas. The bypass is located just east of the heavily congested Breezewood interchange for Interstate 70 eastbound at what is now I-76 exit 161. The section of the turnpike was at one time part of the South Pennsylvania Railroad.
context_section_description: In the early 1970s, the emission levels of unleaded gasoline were tested in Rays Hill Tunnel. A Plymouth Satellite was used as the test vehicle.
  The PTC and PennDOT used the highway to train maintenance workers, as well as for testing of rumble strips.
  There have also been numerous military uses for the highway; the tunnels were considered as a storage area for weapons, as was the open highway for aircraft. The military also used the highway for training soldiers for Iraq in the early 2000s, even after the highway was sold to the SAC.
  The site of the former Cove Valley Travel Plaza was used as a shooting range for the Pennsylvania State Police. Since the SAC bought the property, the site has not been used as a shooting range, although warning signs are still posted in the area.
  In 2008 the highway was used for the filming of the Dimension Films movie The Road starring Viggo Mortensen. The studios mildly restored the exterior of the eastern portal of the Ray's Hill Tunnel when it was used for filming.
caption: Test rumble strips from the SNAP project, just outside the western portal of the Rays Hill Tunnel
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