Interstate 76 (east)

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Image:76-80.svg

Interstate 76 (abbreviated I-76) is an Interstate Highway in the United States, running 435 miles (700 km) from an interchange with Interstate 71 west of Akron, Ohio east to Interstate 295 near Camden, New Jersey.

East of Akron, I-76 joins the Ohio Turnpike and heads around the south side of Youngstown. In Pennsylvania, I-76 runs across most of the state on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, passing near Pittsburgh and Harrisburg before leaving the Turnpike to enter Philadelphia on the Schuylkill Expressway, crossing the Walt Whitman Bridge into New Jersey. From its end at I-295, Route 42 and the Atlantic City Expressway continue the freeway to Atlantic City.

[edit] Route description

I-76 begins at Interstate 71 at exit 209, east of Lodi, Ohio; U.S. Route 224 continues west from the end of I-76. The interchange is a double trumpet, a type rarely used off toll roads due to weaving on the connector road. (The interchange will be reconstructed from 2007 to 2009. [1]) Officially, I-76 begins at the beginning of the ramp from I-71 north; it merges with US 224 at mile 0.61. After passing through rural Medina County, I-76 enters Summit County and soon crosses State Route 21 (old US 21), once the main north-south route through the area until Interstate 77 replaced it, at a cloverleaf interchange. I-76 then passes Barberton and enters Akron; this section of road was built as US 224.

Soon after entering Akron, I-76 exits the main freeway, which continues east as Interstate 277, onto the short Kenmore Expressway; U.S. Route 224 leaves I-76 there and continues east as a surface road after I-277 ends at Interstate 77. Shortly after heading north from the I-277 interchange, I-76 meets I-77 and again turns east, joining southbound I-77 through downtown Akron on the West Expressway. A partial interchange provides access to State Route 59, the Innerbelt, and then I-76 crosses through the Central Interchange, where I-77 goes south (on the South Expressway) and State Route 8 begins to the north (on the North Expressway); I-76 switches from the West Expressway to the East Expressway.

Leaving the Akron area, I-76 again heads through rural areas, crossing Portage County and entering Mahoning County. West of Youngstown, the freeway crosses the Ohio Turnpike. Officially I-76 ends at the Turnpike overpass and I-76K begins on the Turnpike at the overpass, with a similar change happening with Interstate 80 and I-80K (east on the freeway to Youngstown and west on the Turnpike). In reality, access between the roads is via a double trumpet connection in the northeast corner of the crossing, along which I-76 and I-80 both run in opposite directions.

The Ohio Turnpike and Pennsylvania Turnpike carry I-76 into and across most of Pennsylvania, bypassing all major cities - Youngstown to the south, Pittsburgh to the north and Harrisburg to the south. At Valley Forge, northwest of Philadelphia, I-76 leaves the Turnpike to run into Philadelphia on the Schuylkill Expressway, while Interstate 276 continues east on the Turnpike. Immediately after exiting, I-76 interchanges with the U.S. Route 202 and U.S. Route 422 freeways, and then crosses Interstate 476 and begins running along the southwest shore of the Schuylkill River. Interchanges provide access to the Roosevelt Expressway (U.S. Route 1) and Vine Street Expressway (Interstate 676); the latter runs through downtown Philadelphia while I-76 bypasses to the south.

The last interchange before the Walt Whitman Bridge over the Delaware River into New Jersey is with Interstate 95. Some of the ramps involve traffic signals, as the ramps to I-95 were retrofitted into an existing interchange when I-95 was built, and the toll booth for the bridge lies west of the crossing of the two roads. Just after crossing the river, I-76 turns south along the North-South Freeway, which carries Interstate 676 north to downtown Camden; the unsigned Route 76C connector runs east to U.S. Route 130 and Route 168. The exit numbers in New Jersey are backwards, running from east to west.

From the I-676 interchange to the end, I-76 originally had local and express lanes in both directions, but the eastbound barrier has been removed, and now the separation is westbound only. I-76 ends at an interchange with Interstate 295 on the Mount Ephraim/Bellmawr town line, where the local/express split begins heading westbound. Route 42 continues south on the North-South Freeway, feeding into the Atlantic City Expressway to Atlantic City. While the South Jersey Transportation Authority (which owns the ACE) is not against the idea of making Route 42 and the ACE an eastern extension of I-76, they feel that making the change without a compelling reason would only add to motorists' confusion in southern New Jersey. ^[2]

[edit] Notable cities

Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs.

• Akron, Ohio
• Youngstown, Ohio (bypassed) (On the Pennsylvania Turnpike from New Stanton westward, "Ohio" is used as the "control city")
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (bypassed)
• New Stanton, Pennsylvania (mentioned sometimes on the on ramps going westbound) -- At this exit, Cleveland, Ohio is mentioned going westbound along with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Breezewood, Pennsylvania (mentioned sometimes on the on ramps going eastbound)
• Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (bypassed)
• Reading, Pennsylvania (bypassed and never mentioned)
• Valley Forge, Pennsylvania (mentioned going westbound only)
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (within Philadelphia going eastbound before Interstate 676, "Central Philadelphia" is used as the control city)
• Atlantic City, New Jersey (From Philadelphia's Walt Whitman Bridge going eastbound, Atlantic City, New Jersey is used as the control city, while Camden, New Jersey is never mentioned)

[edit] Auxiliary routes

• Interstate 176 runs north from I-76 at Morgantown, Pennsylvania to U.S. Route 422 outside of Reading.
• Interstate 276 runs east from I-76 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania along the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge, where it currently ends at the state line. Interstate 95 continues north along the New Jersey Turnpike. It will be truncated by several miles at its east end when the Pennsylvania Turnpike/Interstate 95 Interchange Project is completed and I-95 is connected.
• Interstate 376 runs west from I-76 at Monroeville, Pennsylvania to Interstate 279 in downtown Pittsburgh.
• Interstate 476 begins at Interstate 95 near Chester, Pennsylvania and heads north, crossing I-76 near Conshohocken and I-276 near Plymouth Meeting. From there it continues north on the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike to Interstate 81 at Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, north of Scranton. I-476 is the longest three-digit Interstate.
• Interstate 576 is a planned southern bypass of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Interstate 676 is a loop through downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey, crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge. It runs through several traffic signals in Philadelphia, in violation of Interstate standards.
• Interstate 876 was the number for present Interstate 579 in the early 1970s.

[edit] History

The majority of I-76, along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, includes the first long-distance rural freeway in the U.S.; the Ohio Turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway are also pre-Interstate freeways. By 1955, the section of that route from west of Youngstown to downtown Philadelphia was included in the planned Interstate Highway System, as was present I-76 from west of Youngstown to Akron. (Some early plans called for a new freeway along State Route 14 to the Pennsylvania state line; it is unclear when the proposed route was shifted to the Turnpikes.)

In 1957 the route from Cleveland east to Harrisburg, running roughly along the State Route 14 corridor in Ohio and the Turnpike in Pennsylvania, was labeled Interstate 80, and the rest of the route from Harrisburg to Philadelphia was assigned Interstate 80S. (Interstate 80N would have run from Harrisburg to New York City.) Interstate 78 was assigned to a route from Norwalk, Ohio, paralleling State Route 18 through Akron to Youngstown, and turning south there to end at the planned I-80.

Image:Cleveland Interstate Highways map.svg

However, the 1957 numbering was drawn on a map from 1947, which did not include several changes that had been approved, specifically the Keystone Shortway across Pennsylvania. (The route in that corridor ran further north, along U.S. Route 6, and was numbered Interstate 84.) Thus, the final numbering, approved in 1958, assigned I-80 to the Norwalk-Youngstown route to reach the Keystone Shortway. The former alignment through Cleveland became Interstate 80N; the Turnpike was still not assigned a number from near Elyria (where I-80N and I-90 would split from it) to west of Youngstown. The route from west of Youngstown to Philadelphia was assigned Interstate 80S, and extended east to I-295 in New Jersey when the three-digit Interstates were assigned in 1959. (The planned I-80N in Pennsylvania became I-78.) Initial spurs of I-80S were I-180 (now I-176), I-280 (now I-276), I-480 (now I-476) and I-680 (now I-676, though it swapped with I-76 in 1972).

I-80 was realigned in Ohio by 1962, largely taking over former I-80N, which ran through Cleveland, joining the Turnpike southwest of Cleveland. However, while I-80N was planned to split from I-80 near Kent and run northwest to Cleveland along State Route 14, the new alignment of I-80 used the Turnpike between the crossing west of Youngstown and the crossing with State Route 14 at Streetsboro. The former I-80 from near Youngstown west to Akron became part of I-80S, as did a new alignment (already built as U.S. Route 224) from Akron west to I-71 east of Lodi; the rest of proposed I-80 west to near Norwalk (which would have crossed I-71 near Medina) was removed from the Interstate Highway System. Ca. 1971, I-80 was moved to the Turnpike between Streetsboro and southwest of Cleveland; the old route became I-480.

On April 16, 1963, due in part to the extension of I-79 south from the Pittsburgh area, Pennsylvania proposed a partial renumbering. A new number, tentatively designated I-76, would run from downtown Pittsburgh east on what was then I-70 (I-70S bypassed Pittsburgh to the south on what is now I-70) to the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Monroeville, and then east along the remainder of I-80S to I-295. I-80S would remain on the section of turnpikes from west of Youngstown to Monroeville. This was approved February 26, 1964, and included the renumbering of all X80 spurs to X76.

On June 29, 1970, a renumbering was approved in the Pittsburgh area, with the main effect being rerouting I-79 to bypass Pittsburgh to the west on the former I-279. I-279 was moved to the former I-79 north of downtown, and the former I-79 from downtown southwest to new I-79 became a western extension of I-76. (It was then that I-876 was designated for former I-479.) A realignment and extension of I-76 into Ohio, taking over the rest of I-80S to I-71 east of Lodi, was approved January 11, 1972. The former I-76 from Monroeville west into downtown Pittsburgh became I-376, and I-279 was extended southwest from downtown along former I-76 to I-79. (I-876 was renumbered to I-579 then.) Signs in Ohio were changed September 1, 1972; the old I-80S signs remained for about a year.

On August 29, 1972, a swap of I-76 and I-676 in Philadelphia and Camden was approved. I-76 had been routed along the Vine Street Expressway and Ben Franklin Bridge (now I-676) through downtown Philadelphia, while I-676 used the Schuylkill Expressway and Walt Whitman Bridge to bypass downtown to the south. The switch was made because of delays in building the Vine Street Expressway and better interchange geometry at the splits.

The renumbering of a Philadelphia Interstate to 76 in the years leading up the to the Bicentenial Celebration of the 1776 signing in Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence gives rise to the question of the highway number being an intentional tribute to the Spirit of '76. USDoT research into federal documentation of the I-76 renumbering found no evidence of this being intentional<ref>Was I-76 Numbered to Honor Philadelphia for Independence Day, 1776?. Retrieved on 2006-09-17.</ref>.

[edit] Exit list

[edit] See also

• Route 76C (New Jersey)

[edit] References

1. ↑  Gregory Pietsch, More I-76 and Atlantic City Expressway, misc.transport.road June 10, 2002 (message ID: zc9N8.56$b22.28752931@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com )

• Was I-76 Numbered to Honor Philadelphia for Independence Day, 1776?
• Kurumi - 3-digit Interstates from I-76
• Ohio Maps and Highway Proposals
• roadfan.com (2005). Cleveland Maps. Retrieved December 15, 2005.
• FHWA Route Log and Finder List
• Ohio straight line diagrams: Medina Summit Portage Mahoning Mahoning (Turnpike) (PDF)
• I-76 (New Jersey) straight line diagram (PDF)

[edit] External links

• Interstate-Guide.com