Interstate 80

[Starless]

The Courier Express
Tuesday, September 22, 1970

Mason Denison:

TRAVELING I-80 WEST

Harrisburg/ Pennsylvania motorists traveling beyond the confines of the Keystone State's 3-13 mile mid state Interstate 80 (the "Keystone Shortway") which was forally dedicated last week, will discover a striking picture in contrasts to Pennsylvania Interstate 80 as they head westward.

For one thing, immediately upon entering the Ohio stretch of Interstate 80 you will find yourself on a toll road- the Ohio Turnpike- while in Pennsylvania Interstate 80 is a freeway.

Additionally, the mountainous terrain almost immediately disappears and you find yourself traveling rolling, semi-wooded farming country- almost flat-out by Pennsylvania Interstate 80 standards.

Leaving Ohio, you'll travel the Indiana Turnpike for that state's section of Interstate 80, also a toll road and the last on the 1,800-mile jog from Stroudsburg in the east to Denver in the west.

If you are one to munch at lunch with the family troops along a roadside stop in picnic stance, you'll notice a striking contrast between Pennsylvania and the interstates of the midwest and west.

Pennsylvania roadside rest areas along it's interstate system, and this includes the Keystone State's Interstate 80 section, leave much to be desired.

The Keystone State has pull-off and pull-on lanes for it's rest areas, to be sure, and there are usually a couple of wooden picnic tables and there may or may not e some primitive toilet and lavatory facilities.

But beginning in Ohio and continuing through virtually all the other states westward, you'll find pull-off rest and picnic areas that are a traveler's delight, another phase of the story in contrast.

Roadside rest areas along Interstate 80 west of Pennsylvania for one thing are blessed with shade trees of shade height and many of the areas as you head westward, particularly through Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado have roofs over the picnic tables and in some of the windier states such as Iowa and Nebraska, protective walls have been built facing the windward side.

Again in contrast, in many rest areas westward along Interstate 80, you'll find flush toilets, running water in the restrooms (some of which even have ceramic tile walls) electric hand-driers, etc... Most buildings are built of stone, brick, or block, not wood.

Interchanges are different from those found on Pennsylvania's Interstate 80. With the flat spacious land it is feasible in the west apparently to simply build (cheaper) bear-off to the right departure lanes as opposed to the more costly, sweeping, circular interchanges in the east. Interchange traffic isn't that heavy in the west.

In contrast to the mountainous Pennsylvania Interstate 80 where sighting distances are comparatively short, the yawning, shimmering flatlands of the west are ideal for the erection of huge gasoling service signs you can spot perhaps a couple of miles ahead (but well off the Interstate 80 right-of-way.)

Another story in contrasts, State Police do not patrol nearly as well in western sections of Interstate 80 (in fact we spotted only a couple of gendarmes during the entire trip) as you will find on Pennsylvania Interstate 80 (and other interstates in the state.)

Pennsylvania unquestionably has one of the most outstanding maintenance programs to be found anywhere. In the west, as for example, in Nebraska and Colorado, traveling along the flatlands on Interstate 80, you could spot cars traveling in the opposite direction, without seeing the roadway on which they are traveling. Reason: it appeared the grass (or weeds) had not been cut all summer in the medial strip.

Interstate 80 west is not spectacular. Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania is spectacular as it snakes from east to west across the state.

[Starless]

Speed limit on I-80 was 65 m.p.h. in 1970

There have been other bodies found along 80 - most are resent.