Interstate 279

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Interstate 279
Auxiliary route of the Interstate Highway System

Maintained by PennDOT

Length:

19.52 mi^[1] (31.41 km)

Formed:

1972

South end:

I-79/US 22/US 30 near Pittsburgh

Major
junctions:

I-376/US 22/US 30 in Pittsburgh

I-579/PA 28 in Pittsburgh

North end:

I-79 in Franklin Park

Pennsylvania State Routes
< I-276		I-280 >
Minor - Legislative

Interstate 279 (abbreviated I-279) is a north-south interstate highway spur that lies entirely within Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It terminates at both ends at Interstate 79, the north end being in Franklin Park and the south end in Carnegie. It primarily serves at the main access route between Pittsburgh and its northern and western suburbs. I-279 defies typical AASHTO rules in that I-79 and I-279 are "backwards" -- i.e. I-79 should head directly through Pittsburgh while I-279 bypasses it to the west (as I-79 does). In fact, for a short time, this was actually planned.

1 Route description
2 History
3 Future
4 Exit list
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Route description

I-279 right outside of downtown Pittsburgh

Major cities Bolded cities are officially-designated control cities for signs
Pittsburgh Carnegie Green Tree Pittsburgh International Airport Downtown Pittsburgh North Shore (Pittsburgh) Erie

The highway is locally referred to as "Parkway North" or "Parkway West" (since the southern seven miles are more west-east than north-south) depending on one's relative position to downtown Pittsburgh. At the southern terminus of 279, the highway continues as U.S. Highway 22 and U.S. Highway 30, and after those routes split off, it becomes PA 60 leading to Pittsburgh International Airport. I-279 also has a concurrency with U.S. Route 19 Truck for 6 miles from exit 5 to exit 11. I-279 intersects Interstate 376 in downtown Pittsburgh. Interstate 579 also intersects I-279, but is only accessible by southbound traffic; likewise, traffic from I-579 can only head northbound on I-279 by the Interstate 279 Interchange. The best-known landmark on 279 is the Fort Pitt Tunnel and Bridge due to its "surprising" view of the Pittsburgh skyline. 279 also crosses the Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny River, providing easy access to Heinz Field and PNC Park. The Parkway North features two reversible HOV lanes. A related tragedy occurred in 1995 when a negligent highway worker failed to close the outbound gates, leading to a headon collision that killed six. In 2006, to help prevent a repeat of this incident, automatic "fast acting gates" were activated at the southern entrances to these HOV lanes in downtown Pittsburgh.

[edit] History

The southern portion of the highway, from the southern interchange with Interstate 79 to downtown Pittsburgh was a completed highway long before the section that runs from north of downtown, from downtown Pittsburgh to the northern interchange with Interstate 79. In fact, the I-279 designation was once used for the sections of Interstate 79 west of Pittsburgh, with the idea being that once the North Hills extension was completed, that the highway west of the city would be numbered Interstate 279, and the highway running through Pittsburgh would be numbered as Interstate 79. Plans were made to extend I-279 to its current northern terminus in Franklin Park, and construction began in the mid 1980s, and the construction concluded in September 1989. During the late 1990s and the early 2000s, several rehabilitation and construction projects were done on the Fort Pitt Bridge and the tunnels, creating detours and traffic problems during the construction projects.

[edit] Future

This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (February 2008)

There has been debate as to whether or not I-279 will be slightly truncated at the Fort Pitt interchange^[2], whenever the planned extension of I-376 up the current PA Route 60's alignment officially goes into effect on New Year's Day 2009. While it has been confirmed that 60 itself will be truncated at some point in Allegheny County, a final decision for I-279 hasn't been made yet. While some maps have the future truncation noted, other maps simply have I-279 remaining at status quo and being concurrent with I-376, U.S 22, and U.S 30 up to the current southern terminus with I-79.

[edit] Exit list

The entire route is in Allegheny County.

Location	Mile ^{[citation needed]}	#		Destinations	Notes
Location	Mile ^{[citation needed]}	Old		Destinations	Notes
Rosslyn Farms				US 22 west / US 30 west – Pittsburgh International Airport	Continuation beyond I-79
	0.51	1	1A	I-79 – Erie, Washington	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	0.82		1B	Rosslyn Farms	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Carnegie	1.33			West Busway	Northbound exit and southbound entrance; buses only
Carnegie	1.73	3	2	PA 50 west – Carnegie, Heidelberg
Green Tree	3.49	4	4A	PA 121 – Mount Lebanon, Green Tree, Crafton
Pittsburgh	4.18	5	4B	Parkway Center Drive	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	4.86	6	5A	US 19 south (Banksville Road)	South end of US 19/US 19 Truck overlap; northbound exit is via exit 5C
	5.10	7A	5B	US 19 Truck south / PA 51 south – Uniontown	Southbound exit is via exit 5A
	5.18	7B	5C	US 19 north / PA 51 north – West End	North end of US 19 overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance
	5.80	Fort Pitt Tunnel under Mount Washington
	6.07	7	5C	PA 837 (West Carson Street) to PA 51 – West End	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	6.19	Fort Pitt Bridge over the Monongahela River
	6.22	8	6A	I-376 east (Penn-Lincoln Parkway East, US 22 east, US 30 east) – Downtown Pittsburgh, Monroeville	North end of US 22/US 30 overlap
	6.24	9	6B	Boulevard of the Allies, Liberty Avenue – Mellon Arena	Northbound exit and southbound entrance
	6.47	10	6C	Fort Dusquene Boulevard – Convention Center, Strip District
	6.59	Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny River
	6.82	11A/12	7A	North Shore	No northbound entrance
	7.07	11B/12	7B	PA 65 north (Ohio River Boulevard) to US 19
				9th Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance; HOV only
	7.43	13	7C	PA 28 north / Chestnut Street, Ohio Street – Etna	Southbound exit is via exit 8B
	7.73	14	8A	I-579 south (Veterans Bridge)	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	8.15	15	8B	East Street	Southbound exit and northbound entrance
	9.06	16	9	Hazlett Street	Northbound exit and entrance
	10.13	17	10	Venture Street	Southbound exit and entrance
	10.45	18	11	US 19 Truck north (McKnight Road) / Evergreen Road	North end of US 19 Truck overlap; northbound exit and southbound entrance
Ross Township	11.64	19	12	US 19 (Perrysville Avenue)
Ross Township	13.27	20	14	Bellevue, West View
Ohio Township	14.61	21	15	Camp Horne Road
Franklin Park	19.52		20	I-79 north – Erie	Northbound exit and southbound entrance