In the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

state highways A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

are generally maintained by the

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, Michael B. Carroll. PennDOT ...

(PennDOT). Each is assigned a four-digit State Route (SR) number in the present Location Referencing System. Traffic Routes are signed as

Interstate Highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...

U.S. Route The United States Numbered Highway System (often called U.S. Routes or U.S. Highways) is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these h ...

s and Pennsylvania Routes (PA Routes), and are prefixed with one to three zeroes to give a four-digit number. PA Routes are also called Pennsylvania Traffic Routes, and formerly State Highway Routes. There are of roadway maintained by state agencies, with maintained by PennDOT, maintained by the

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) is an agency created in 1937 to construct, finance, operate, and maintain the Pennsylvania Turnpike (both the mainline and the Northeast Extension). The commission consists of five members. Four memb ...

, and maintained by other state agencies.

History

The Pennsylvania State Route System was established by the Sproul Road Bill passed in 1911. The system took control of over 4,000 miles of road. The system of roads continued to grow over the next few decades until continual addition of roads faced greater opposition. On October 1, 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's first section of highway was opened to motorized traffic; the Turnpike operated under the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and was independent of the then-known Department of Highways. In 1970, the Department of Highways and several other offices and departments were reorganized into the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. In 1987, the Sproul system of Legislative Routes was reorganized into the current Pennsylvania State Route System under the Location Referencing System. In 2013, PennDOT posted weight restrictions on several bridges along the state route system. As a result, several truck routes were signed for U.S. and state routes, bypassing these weight restricted bridges. Signage practices for these truck routes vary by district, with some districts such as District 5 signing them as standard truck routes and others such as District 6 signing them as double-bannered "alternate truck" routes.

Location Referencing System

Signage

The symbol used for the signage of state routes is an outline of the keystone after Pennsylvania's nickname. Four-digit State Routes are unsigned, except on small white reference markers near physical features such as intersections and bridges, and are unique within each county. Underneath, there is a larger typeface number identifying the segment of highway being entered. Segments are typically one half mile long and are usually numbered in multiples of 10 on non-Interstate highways. Segment numbers increase in the north or east direction, and are even-numbered on undivided highways and on the northbound or eastbound direction of divided highways.

Circumstances with some routes

Special route In road transportation in the United States, a special route is a road in a numbered highway system that diverts a specific segment of related traffic away from another road. They are featured in many highway systems; most are found in the Inte ...

s are not assigned State Route numbers corresponding to their signed numbers but are instead marked along other routes, mostly Quadrant Routes. Concurrencies are assigned a number equal to the smaller number of the concurrent routes, or the highest type (Quadrant Route → PA Route → U.S. Route → Interstate).

- Occasionally, a signed Traffic Route number does not match the State Route, usually in the case of an extension or relocation. (One example is

Pennsylvania Route 3 Pennsylvania Route 3 (PA 3) is a state highway located in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania. The route runs from U.S. Route 322 Business (West Chester, Pennsylvania), U.S. Route 322 Business (US 322 Bus.) in West Chester, Pennsylvania, ...

, which uses a

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descriptio ...

of Quadrant Routes in

Center City Philadelphia Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It comprises the area that made up the City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854, which extended the ci ...

.) A different number can also be used to avoid conflicts between different types — for instance, signed

Pennsylvania Route 380 Pennsylvania Route 380 (officially, SR 400 because of I-380 elsewhere in Pennsylvania), also known as J.F. Bonetto Memorial Highway and within the city of Pittsburgh Bigelow Boulevard, Baum Boulevard and Frankstown Road, is a state highway in ...

is actually State Route 400, renumbered ca. 1973 when

Interstate 81E Interstate 380 (I-380) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in Northeastern Pennsylvania that connects I-80 with I-81 and I-84. The southern terminus is in Tunkhannock Township at a junction with I-80; the northern terminus of I-380 is at ...

was renumbered Interstate 380. The majority of, but not all, signed Traffic Routes are state-maintained.For instance, the tp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_pdf_files/Maps/GHS/Roadnames/lawrence_GHSN.PDF Lawrence County map indicates that

Pennsylvania Route 551 Pennsylvania Route 551 (PA 551) is a state highway located in Beaver, Lawrence, and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at PA 18 in Beaver Falls. The northern terminus is at PA 18 near West Middlesex. Though offici ...

north of Pulaski, near the north edge of the county is — except for the bridge over Buchanan Creek — locally maintained as Township Route 649. This is confirmed by th
VideoLog
. A tp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_PDF_FILES/Maps/Type_10_GHS_Historical_Scans/Lawrence_1990.pdf 1990 county mapshows that it was once state-maintained as Legislative Route 649.

Lists of routes

References

External links

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation
{{authority control

Highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...