Sideling Hill TB motel Traditional Geocache
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Cache originally placed by thenaturalselector. Cache is placed as a TB hotel at the Sideling Hill Plaza along the PA Turnpike.
From Briantroutman.com:
In 1959, The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) conducted an engineering study assessing possible options to alleviate traffic problems at Laurel Hill and Allegheny Mountain, and additional studies on the other five tunnels soon followed. Based on the studies, the PTC decided to build twin tunnels at Blue Mountain, Kittatinny, Tuscarora, and Allegheny and bypass Laurel Hill, Ray's Hill, and Sideling Hill. The PTC built a short bypass to circumvent Laurel Hill that opened in 1964, and construction of parallel tunnels at Allegheny, Tuscarora, Kittatinny, and Blue Mountain went underway in 1965 and '66.
A more "involved" solution was concocted for the remaining two tunnels, Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill. The PTC decided to create a 13.5-mile bypass extending from a point on the existing Turnpike about three miles west of the Ray's Hill Tunnel and rejoining the Turnpike mainline roughly three miles east of the Sideling Hill Tunnel.
The interchange with old-as-dust US 30 was at the western end of the soon-to-be-bypassed section, and the fine people of PTC had a half-assed solution to that problem up their sleeves (while, apparently, their heads were up something else). An interchange would be built at the western end of the bypass (see the maps below), and exiting traffic would follow a short section of the old Turnpike to an at-grade intersection with US 30. Why was this a bone-headed move? Let me put it this way. The PA Department of Highways (the forerunner of PennDOT) opened Interstate 70 from the Maryland line to Breezewood in 1964. Like two children throwing tantrums, the Department of Highways decided to dump its I-70 traffic onto US 30, and the PTC chose to dump its traffic onto US 30 less that a mile away. "Mommy, its his turn to build an interchange!" As a result, a driver trying to go from the westbound Turnpike to southbound I-70 has to drive west, passing over I-70, exit and pay his toll, drive east, passing under I-70, merge onto westbound US 30, get in the left lane, and finally turn left onto I-70. The word "rigamarole" was invented in Breezewood.
The somewhat diminutive Cove Valley Service Plaza, which was also slated to be orphaned by the bypass, was given a replacement in the construction project. The new Sideling Hill Service Plaza would be much larger and serve both directions of travel, whereas Cove Valley served westbound travelers only. To a lesser extent, the Sideling Hill plaza would also act a partial replacement for Path Valley, a service plaza 15 miles to the east that the PTC would soon close.
***WARNING*** No name in logbook = no find. The no pen excuse does not work here because you can easily obtain a pen or other writing utensil at the service plaza within 500 feet! If you post in your log no pen, I will delete your find!!!
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