Interstate 70 Modernization Projects To Move Highway Into 21st Century

Belle Vernon/ Speers Bridge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  This road was a death-trap when I was living in the Mon Valley back in the 1970’s.  Glad it only took 40 years for PennDot to realize it!

A grassy mound in the backyard of Melvin “Bucky” Walkush’s childhood home is the only visible reminder of the popular carhop restaurant that served the best pizza he’s ever tasted.

It was the 1950s. Elvis topped the charts. Ike was in the White House. The Ford Thunderbird was one of the hottest cars around.

And the New 71 Barbeque along old state Route 71 in North Belle Vernon, owned by Walkush’s brother Joe and his wife, Adeline, was the place to stop for anyone using the highway linking Greensburg and Washington, Pa.

The restaurant is gone now, and the stretch of Route 71 that Walkush, 84, remembers was decommissioned in the 1960s to become part of Interstate 70 between New Stanton and Washington.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/5870537-74/washington-walkush-highway#ixzz32BzJh8u9
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Snowstorm Hits Lancaster County With Up To 7 Inches Of Snow; Dozens Of Crashes Snarl Roads

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lancaster County is getting off to a slow start this morning in the wake of the snowstorm that dropped 6.5 to 7 inches of snow overnight.

In addition, wind chills dipped below zero.

Most local school districts closed, and the Lancaster County Courthouse was opening 2 hours late.

One institution, Ephrata‘s Green Dragon farmer’s market, announced Thursday it was closed Friday.

Millersville University meteorologist Eric Horst, who initially had predicted 2 to 5 inches, upped his forecast to 4 to 7 inches late Thursday. Friday morning, he said most of the county got 6.5 to 7 inches of snow.

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/939014_Snowstorm-hits-Lancaster-County-with-up-to-7-inches-of-snow–dozens-of-crashes-snarl-roads.html#ixzz2pMeUtsf8

Snow causes traffic problems throughout region

Snow and ice arrived much earlier — and in greater amounts — than anticipated on Sunday, causing traffic issues and other nuisances throughout the region.

Late in the morning, snow began falling well before the late afternoon/early evening timeslot forecasters predicted.

Charles Metzger, a spokesman with PennDOT, said that PennDOT was “not surprised,” though, and had 300 trucks out on their roads Saturday night and throughout the day Sunday.

He said the trucks sprayed a salt brine Saturday night in anticipation of the storm.

Read more: http://www.pottsmerc.com/general-news/20131208/snow-causes-traffic-problems-throughout-region

Driver Charged In Fatality, But Road Shares Blame

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a press conference aimed at Route 222 drivers but mostly at PennDOT, Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams announced Friday that police have filed homicide charges against the New Jersey trucker who caused the most horrific of several fatal accidents on that congested highway.

The Oct. 22, 2012, crash in Maidencreek Township killed Lauren Boyer, 45, of Richmond Township when a tractor-trailer squashed her stopped car into the stopped truck ahead of her.

It also injured three people, one of them still undergoing treatment and surgeries.

Earlier Friday, Northern Berks Regional Police filed charges of homicide by vehicle, involuntary manslaughter and related offenses against the truck driver, Emilio Perez-Pazmino, 62, of Jersey City.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=515675

Mother Of Montoursville Flight 800 Victim Surprised At New Crash Cause Claim

This photograph is part of the National Transportation Safety Board accident report for TWA Flight 800. The date on the photograph shows as May 20, 1997. It is figure 29 of the report, which is described as: A photograph of the large three-dimensional reconstruction, with the support scaffolding visible. Uploaded at full size as pulled from the report. URL of this report: http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/2000/AAR0003.pdf (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MONTOURSVILLE — Claims of proof that the cause of the TWA Flight 800 crash in 1996 was an external detonation comes as a surprised to a mother of one of the 21 people from Montoursville, Pa., who died aboard the plane.

Irenay Weaver, whose daughter Monica was one of the 16 Montoursville High School students killed, said she was feeling disbelief upon learning Wednesday that former investigators of the crash are making that claim in a documentary that’s slated to be released next month.

Weaver questioned why people will not let it go.

“We’ve let it go,” she said of the victims’ families. “I don’t think we will ever know (the cause.).”

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/mother_of_montoursville_flight.html#/0