OUR MISSION
Our mission is to operate a safe, reliable and efficient toll road system that serves as a funding partner in Pennsylvania’s efforts to rebuild its entire transportation network.
OUR CUSTOMERS
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) places a premium on offering safe and reliable travel and services to customers.
OUR ENVIRONMENT
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has long recognized that its operations, maintainence and construction efforts impact the environment.
OUR OPERATIONS
For more than six generations, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has built, operated and maintained interstate caliber highways that are not sustained with tax dollars.
OUR ROLE
The role of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) changed substantially with the passage of Act 44 of 2007.
For years, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) has recycled tires, rubber byproducts and metals from highway clean up; fluorescent lights from tunnel re-lamping; and used batteries, fleet tires, and guide rails.
Large slabs of the original highway are being excavated and crushed into an aggregate material which can then be used in the sub-base of the new roadway. The PTC also utilizes “fly ash,” a byproduct of steel used in concrete mixes to help lubricate and strengthen the mixtures.
Any time wetlands are disturbed during a project, the PTC replaces or rebuilds them to accommodate plant life and wildlife in the area. Preservation activities have included special bat or bird boxes for protection, tree plantings and a mixture of grasses and wild flowers to attract pheasants and other wildlife.
Learn More About Our Environment
The Pennsylvania (PA) Turnpike was originally constructed in a remarkable 23-month period and opened for traffic on October 1, 1940, making it “America’s First Superhighway.”
In July 2007, the PA Legislature addressed the transportation–funding challenge by passing Act 44, a historic and innovative strategy that authorized a 50–year Public–Public Partnership between the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT).
If the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grants approval, the conversion of the 311–mile
I–80 corridor to a tolled facility will be the first
tax–funded interstate converted to tolls in history.
Learn More About Our Role
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission’s (PTC’s) winter weather fleet includes 750 maintenance workers, 250 plow and spreader dump trucks, 45 front-end loaders and 125,000 tons of salt,
anti-skid, calcium and other materials.
The PTC has a strong safety record, with fatality rates less than half of Pennsylvania’s other interstates and below toll roads in New Jersey, Ohio and New York.
In August 2007, the PTC announced that the entire Uniontown-to-Brownsville section of the Mon/Fayette Expressway would be completed. When completed in 2011, the project will provide
a continuous 57-mile stretch of highway between
I-68 in West Virginia and PA Route 51 in Jefferson Borough, Allegheny County.
Learn More About Our Operations
Pennsylvania Turnpike engineers developed an innovation called the Sonic Nap Alert Pattern (SNAP) in 1996. SNAP is an innovative type of shoulder rumble strip, producing a distinct warning sound and vibration when drowsy or inattentive drivers drift onto the shoulder of the roadway. After installation of SNAP – now in use across America – drift–off–road accidents per month decreased by 70 percent.
The new Oakmont Plum Service Plaza became the first Turnpike stop in the nation to offer Ethanol
E–85, a high–octane alternative fuel made of 85 percent ethyl/grain alcohol and 15 percent gasoline (Summer 2007).
The reconstruction of 17 service plazas is anticipated to be completed in 2013, providing modern conveniences to all Turnpike travelers.
Learn More About Our Customers
