September 2025

Sideling Hill Trailhead Opening Soon, Connecting Service Plaza to Network of Trails

Bicyclists, outdoor enthusiasts and travelers looking for a quick break will soon have a new way to get outdoors and connect to a vast network of trails and historic sites-starting right from the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

The Sideling Hill Trailhead is set to open soon.

"It's always a good feeling to be involved with something you worked on for so long and finally see it nearly complete," said PA Turnpike Senior Engineer Project Manager Luke Larson. "Reaching this point took a lot of effort from many different parties."

The Sideling Hill Trailhead, located at the service plaza of the same name, is set for its grand opening Sept. 20.

The grand opening is set for Saturday, Sept. 20 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., followed by a guided afternoon hike. Click here to register for the hike.

The new trailhead connects directly to the Sideling Hill Service Plaza via a well-lit walkway, accessible from both eastbound and westbound lanes at milepost 172.3, between the Breezewood and Fort Littleton interchanges.

In addition to expanded parking, the site offers a pavilion with seating, a picnic area, and even a one-of-a-kind bike wash designed by local students from Forbes Road and Southern Fulton High Schools. It is in proximity of more than 600 miles of recreational trails within a 25-mile radius - making it a hub for adventure.

For Larson, the project reflects a bigger vision. The PA Turnpike has long been the gateway to countless destinations, but several years ago his team was asked, "What if the Turnpike itself could be the destination?" Much like when America's First Superhighway first opened 85 years ago, families could come not just to travel through, but to experience the road itself.

The timing was right. The PA Turnpike was already expanding parking at the service plaza, so it made sense to make a connection to the area’s vast trail network. The trailhead is also in close proximity to the abandoned Sideling Hill and Rays Hill tunnels, once part of the PA Turnpike before a bypass was built decades ago to handle growing traffic. Today, the tunnels are owned by the Bedford and Fulton County Recreation Authority, a key partner on the project.

Ultimately, the goal was to create something for both travelers and the local community.

"The goal was to create a unique experience for our customers and for the community," Larson said. "There's nothing else like this on our system. It's unique - and it's here for everyone to enjoy."

Read more about it in this story by PA Turnpike CEO Mark Compton, which first appeared in Borough News.

Find out more in this video:

Toll Booth Demolition Underway as a Part of Open Road Tolling

They are certainly part of the history of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but with Open Road Tolling creating a smoother, seamless form of travel, the toll booths have to go.

“There is definitely some nostalgia that goes along with the excitement of modernization,” said Senior Engineer Project Manager Steve Dale, who is overseeing the toll booth demolition portion of Open Road Tolling, or ORT.

Have you seen the demolition? Check out these videos:

Norristown Interchange Demolition

ORT launched east of Reading and along the Northeast Extension back in January and will go live on the rest of the PA Turnpike in January 2027.

The PA Turnpike has heard from customers that interchanges can be a stressful part of their travels, particularly when it comes to merging into and out of toll plazas. Under ORT, toll plaza removal alleviates that worry. Travelers are tolled at gantries spanning over the highway rather than at the old toll plazas, and since the toll booths are no longer needed, their demolition is underway in the eastern part of the state.

"It will be an overall transformational project to modernize the areas where our customers enter and exit the PA Turnpike," Dale said.

The Mid County Interchange building once stood here. It was demolished along with the toll plazas that ran over 17 lanes connecting I-276 and I-476. Toll plaza demolition is continuing through the eastern part of the PA Turnpike as part of Open Road Tolling.

The process is a little different at each location, but for the most part, Dale explained traffic will flow through the outside toll lanes as crews demolish the toll booths, islands and overhead structures in the middle. Once the roadway is patched and restored, crews will shift traffic to the newly opened middle lanes as they remove the outside toll booths.  

Finally, topsoil and grass can be added to the outside areas to reduce impervious surfaces, and at the same time, new lanes will be redrawn where the toll booths once stood to establish a more guided and unobstructed passage through the interchange areas.

Of the 21 toll plazas in the east, work has started at 11: Lansdale, Route 903, Pocono, Wyoming Valley, Keyser Avenue, Mid-County, Norristown, Valley Forge, Fort Washington, Quakertown, and Lehigh Valley. The 18-month project is expected to wrap up in the east by late 2026, and once ORT goes live along the rest of the PA Turnpike in January 2027, work can begin to demolish the toll plazas in the west.

Without the need to build toll plazas in the future, the PA Turnpike can more easily and cost effectively construct new interchanges to connect to new communities - another great benefit of Open Road Tolling.

"I feel very fortunate to be a part of such a transformational project," Dale said. "We're saying 'goodbye' to a part of our history, but at the same time, we’re moving into the future."

Summer's End

Brightly colored flowers across the Pennsylvania Turnpike are more than just a pretty picture. They are home to vital pollinators and contribute to the PA Turnpike’s sustainability goals.

"We’re really hoping that the program can provide not only a benefit to the environment but really help drive home the Commission’s goal of stewardship," Brady Pnacek, Stormwater Management Specialist, said.

The Irwin Interchange’s pollinator habitat is one of six around the PA Turnpike system.

It's all part of the PA Turnpike’s award-winning Pollinator Habitat Program.

This is the fourth year of the program, which has blossomed with six locations and 23.5 acres across the PA Turnpike.

The habitats are cultivated from a variety of flowers and grass to help support pollinating insects, such as bees, moths, butterflies, hummingbirds, and small mammals.

As the program grew, so did the weeds, threatening the carefully selected mix of flowers and grass, but Pnacek and his team jumped into action using what’s called pre-emergent herbicides. Following scientific models that detail when and under what conditions weeds grow, they were able to stop the pesky plants before they had a chance to take hold and overrun the pollinator-favorite plants.

The pollinator habitat at the Allentown Service Plaza

With that crisis averted, 2025 turned out to be a successful season overall, particularly at the Allentown Service Plaza, the newest of the habitats. Covering about 7 ½ acres, Pnacek said it grew in well for its first full season. Similar habitats are also installed at the Irwin, Harrisburg West, and Bensalem interchanges, the Hickory Run Service Plaza, and the Central Administration Building near Middletown.

While the growing season is drawing to a close and some of the bloom may be coming off the bright colors, that doesn’t mean the work of the pollinator habitats is over. Far from it. Flowers will soon be shedding their seeds, which will grow into next year’s habitats. And as the snowy season approaches, crews will mow the habitats down to about 10 inches tall - but they’ll still serve as winter homes for small mammals and some bees. 

It’s all part of the natural process. 

Already with an eye turned toward spring and beyond, Pnacek hopes to have these, and more protected areas, become self-sustaining, benefiting the wildlife statewide. 

"Roadsides and other lands do not have to look perfect, and they are more functional and beneficial when they are natural and purposeful," Pnacek said. 

The PA Turnpike, embracing this, as it continues to grow and improve the area surrounding the roadside, is part of being a good neighbor to all, he added.

Blasting Operation Makes Way for Access Ramp: Entire Project Designed and Constructed Using High-Tech, 3D Digital Model

More than 200 holes were drilled into the ground - some as deep as 20 feet down - each and every one packed with dynamite.

What else is there to say but, "KA-BOOM!"

Sometimes, though, you just have to see it for yourself:

Blasting Operation video

The Pennsylvania Turnpike and CDR Maguire Engineering are managing the construction of new access gates   for maintenance crews and emergency responders near Mechanicsburg. Due to the rocky terrain, blasting is required to build a stormwater basin, PA Turnpike Engineer Project Manager Payton Gonzalez explained.

Crews watch the blasting operation near Mechanicsburg. This is one step in constructing a 3D model-based digital delivery project.

But even before the explosives could be set, the project had to be designed. That’s where Design Services Coordinator Butch Loncar and his team came in, implementing the PA Turnpike’s Digital Delivery Program. You can see it for yourself in this video:

Digital Delivery Video

Loncar explained that crews in the field are working with a 3D digital model of the access gate on an iPad. Instead of flipping through page after page of PDFs, they can peel back layers of the model, with the top layer being an image of the completed project and the bottom layers revealing the rocky foundation that required blasting.

Digital Delivery processes include using 3D digital models like this, which shows a bridge project. These models enable design and construction personnel to view the entire project from multiple angles and layers, all on a tablet or PC.

Digital Delivery processes have been used on several other projects at the PA Turnpike, including the design of the Hatchery Road Bridge on the Northeast Extension in Carbon County and the construction of the New Cumberland Maintenance Facility, which is underway now.    

“Each project is a learning experience,” Loncar said. “It’s exciting to change the way we design and execute the design, but it doesn’t change the engineering in the field. It’s just giving them better tools to more accurately build what we need.”  

Digital Delivery goes beyond design and construction. As bridges, roads, and buildings age and crews make upgrades, those upgrades will be recorded in the 3D model as a living, digital document. Future designers who need to revisit information from previous construction projects will have easy access to it through the Digital Delivery processes they are building. 

With all that careful planning and innovation for the future, though, it’s still fun for engineering personnel like Loncar to get out into the field and see it all unfold in real life, like a series of more than 200 underground explosions firing off within seconds of each other, raising and rippling the ground, and making way for the next phase of construction.