The STAR (Safety Testing and Research) facility is actually an 11-mile section of the Turnpike that was abandoned in 1968 when one-lane tunnels at Ray’s Hill and Sideling Hill were by-passed. The 12-mile bypass rendered the two lane tunnels, and nearby roadway, obsolete.

The bypassed section of original Turnpike now used for the STAR facility begins near the Breezewood Interchange and runs east for 11 miles through the Ray’s Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels rejoining the current Turnpike just east of the Sideling Hill Service Plaza. The 3,500-foot long Rays Hill Tunnel had been the shortest of the Turnpike’s original seven tunnels, while Sideling Hill, at 6,800 feet, had been the longest.

The Laurel Hill Tunnel in Westmoreland County had been bypassed years earlier. That tunnel is currently used by the Turnpike Commission to store road salt and other materials.

For 20 years the abandoned section of Turnpike which straddled the Bedford-Fulton County border lay idle and obscure. In 1988, the Turnpike decided to reclaim the highway from encroaching vegetation and use it to test a new type of shoulder rumble strip designed to alert drowsy drivers. (The result was the Sonic Nap Alert Pattern, SNAP, which is now used on the Turnpike and other major roadways.)

Use of the abandoned roadway for SNAP testing convinced Turnpike Commissioners that the old highway had potential as a testing facility. It has since been offered to industry, universities and government agencies for research efforts.

"The most serious challenge to introducing new technology for highway travel is determining its safety effects," said Turnpike Research Manager John J. Hickey, Jr. who recently wrote a paper on the history and potential of the STAR facility. "By using this formerly abandoned section of the Turnpike, we’ve developed a unique and valuable testing facility at very little cost."

Hickey said the "unique site has served many agencies and projects that needed a remote and private environment to try out new ideas."

The first outside agency to use the STAR facility was also among the most innovative. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) leased the site in 1990 to conduct research on traffic sign size and brightness factors. The project used the Sideling Hill Tunnel to simulate nighttime visibility conditions and also used a mile-long straightaway just west of the tunnel for daytime study.

In 1991, FHWA conducted another series of tests – with more action – as cars were crashed into guide rails and over hillsides at varying points along the abandoned roadway to examine realistic shoulder slopes and the effectiveness of guide rail.

Full-scale crash tests were conducted as part of a study on effectiveness of traffic barriers on curves, curbs and slopes. The STAR facility offered an ideal selection of actual highway configurations needed for testing without the traffic problems that are encountered on actual highway.

Various other tests have been conducted at the STAR facility over the years. The west end, behind Breezewood’s motels, has been used periodically by the FHWA and the National Transportation Safety Board to conduct accident investigation training involving low speed skid tests with a truck tractor and semi-trailer. An auto manufacturer conducted headlamp tests both inside and outside the tunnels. Lead paint removal technology was demonstrated on the underside of the one steel overhead bridge. A laser-based vehicle control system was tested for reliability to prequalify for a planned FHWA crash test.

Troop T of the Pennsylvania State Police, which patrols the Turnpike, tested a "road nail" system that can be scissored across the road to safely stop a speeding vehicle, and then be yanked back in time to save the tires of the chasing patrol vehicle.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission is investigating a number of future uses for the STAR facility. STAR was made available to the National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC) as a facility for testing and prototype demonstrations of future highway technology. It is now available under the "Intelligent Vehicle Initiative," a U.S. Department of Transportation program to speed up the use of promising technology to improve safety.

It is interesting to envision the Pennsylvania Turnpike, America’s first superhighway, as a test bed for the highways of the 21^st century. The STAR facility is an artifact of the golden age of motoring, part of the "dream highway" displayed at the 1939 World’s Fair. The four-mile segment between the two abandoned tunnels today lies silent, but preserved as originally constructed – with a plain grassy median and no barrier devices at all. It visually recalls the first experience of many Americans with long distance motoring, an experience that became a model for the U.S. Interstate System.

(This article was adapted from a paper entitled "Development of a Safety Testing and Research Facility for Advanced Rural Transportation Systems," researched and written by Turnpike Research Manager John J. Hickey, Jr.)