BREEZEWOOD, Pa. — Local and state leaders on Thursday highlighted the ongoing push to convert a long-abandoned section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike into a recreation destination and an economic boost for Bedford and Fulton counties.
A $358,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant has been awarded to the Bedford- Fulton Joint Recreation Authority, which owns the abandoned highway, in order to advance that effort, officials announced during a press conference at the western portal of the abandoned Sideling Hill Tunnel.
“This is huge for us,” said authority member Barry Clark.
Hiking and biking on the 8.5-mile-long abandoned section of the turnpike — now branded as The Old PA Pike Trail, or the TOPP Trail for short — is already allowed.
But officials said that a lot of work still needs to be done to turn it into a recreation destination. That includes milling the former roadway, fixing stormwater grates, lighting the two tunnels along the route and reinforcing their ceilings, and several other projects.
It’ll take millions of dollars to complete the entire master plan for the trail, but the ARC funding is expected to go a long way in addressing some of those needs. The state Department of Community and Economic Development will match the grant for a total of $716,000 dedicated to the effort.
Clark, who grew up in Breezewood and still lives there, said on Thursday that the abandoned turnpike section was an “unattended playground” that he and his friends often explored when they were teenagers.
“We’ve had a lot of fun up here,” Clark said.
In recent years, he said, the recreation authority’s stewardship of the land had become frustrating because he and other authority members could see the value of the old tunnels and roadway, but had trouble getting the funding they needed to improve the area.
The abandoned section of highway runs through the woods from just outside Breezewood in Bedford County to near Hustontown in Fulton County, not far from the turnpike’s current route. There are two former tunnels along the route — Rays Hill Tunnel and the mile-plus-long Sideling Hill Tunnel.
The route opened as part of the original Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940, but the number of travelers using the highway quickly outgrew the two-lane tunnels, causing traffic backups and delays.
The state bypassed the tunnels and the section of highway on which they were located in 1968 by opening a new alignment of the turnpike. The original alignment has been closed ever since.
For decades, curious locals and visitors have come to explore the crumbling roadway and the abandoned tunnels. That has also led to instances of vandalism, from property destruction to graffiti.
“The turnpike is one of those real transportation gems that’s hidden here in Bedford and Fulton counties,” said Craig Bachik, the Bedford-Fulton Joint Recreation Authority’s engineer from Navarro and Wright Consulting Engineers Inc.
Plans by Bachik’s firm shown on Thursday featured proposed upgrades to the TOPP Trail, such as construction of trailheads in Breezewood and at the site of the former Cove Valley Travel Plaza, which was abandoned along with the highway in 1968.
Those trailheads would serve as welcoming centers for visitors, featuring educational materials and bicycle maintenance stations.
State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said that using the public’s interest in the old highway’s infrastructure to draw them out into nature is a unique quality of the TOPP Trail.
Dunn and several other speakers, including Nathan Reigner, Pennsylvania director of outdoor recreation, said that investing in outdoor recreation supports jobs, improves quality of life for local residents, and attracts people and businesses.
“People are not choosing jobs; they’re choosing communities,” DCED Executive Director of Tourism Michael Chapaloney said.
