Pennsylvania Route 291

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PA Route 291
Length: 14.15 mi[1] (22.77 km)
Formed: 1928
West end: US 13 in Trainer
Major
junctions:		 I-95 in Philadelphia
East end: I-76 in Philadelphia
Counties: Delaware, Philadelphia
Pennsylvania State Routes
< PA 290 PA 292 >
Minor - Legislative

Pennsylvania Route 291 is an east-west route that connects U.S. Route 13 in the Trainer/Marcus Hook area to Interstate 76 in Southwest Philadelphia near the Walt Whitman Bridge and the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Except for a short 1-mile (1.6 km) section between U.S. Route 13 and the Chester/Trainer line, PA Route 291 is mostly a four-lane highway. It runs parallel to the Delaware River.

Contents

[edit] Route description

Communities[2]

[edit] Trainer to Tinicum

PA Route 291 starts in Trainer, a small borough that is home to a Conoco-Phillips oil refinery (BP and Tosco prior to its present ownership) and after bearing left on a sharp curve, the road becomes 2nd Street. Upon entering Chester, the road widens to a five-lane road and proceeds east along the Delaware River waterfront, passing under the Commodore Barry Bridge at Flower Street (the old access road to the former Chester-Bridgeport Ferry) until it reaches Concord Avenue. At Concord Avenue, the roadway, now called "Industrial Highway" curves to the left, crossing over the Chester Creek near Chester's new City Hall and then, past Welsh and Crosby Streets, aligns itself on a pre-1994 alignment that was widened in the late 1990s as part of a total rebuild project in Chester in an attempt to bring more businesses into the economically depressed city.

Industrial Highway (PA 291) in Essington, facing east
Industrial Highway (PA 291) in Essington, facing east

Past Morton Avenue, which connects PA Route 291 with U.S. Route 13, the road crosses over the Ridley Creek near the new Harrah's Chester Downs Casino, a harness racing track and slot machine parlor that opened in 2006 (for racing only), upon which the casino came into full operation in January, 2007. The race track/casino, along with a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections facility, were built on land once occupied by the Sun Ship and Drydock Company that went out of business in 1990. It is also at Ridley Creek that the PA Route 291 leaves Chester and enter Eddystone, Pennsylvania and at the same time, becoming a physically divided highway that was built in the 1970s.

Past the Ridley Creek bridge, PA Route 291 passes two major facilities; Boeing's Helicopter Facility and Exelon's Eddystone Generation Facility. While the former is well-known for building helicopters for the military, especially the V-22 Osprey and Chinook helicopters, while the latter, opened in 1975, was the site of the massive Eddystone Munitions Plant that exploded in 1914, in which the cause was never determined, but speculated that it was an act of sabotage due to the explosion occuing during the early years of World War I.

After crossing the Darby Creek, PA Route 291 then enters the community of Tinicum, one of the first areas that were occupied by the Swedes prior to the British takeover of colonial Pennsylvania. Dotted by hotels throughout, PA Route 291 in Tinicum is well known for the Wawa convenience store that is frequently dotted with both limos (serving the Philadelphia International Airport) and patrol cars of the nearby Philadelphia Police Department and the federal Transportation Security Agency (TSA).

[edit] Tinicum to Philadelphia

Past Tinicum, PA Route 291 draws up next to Interstate 95, which has a one-way exit going from the northbound lanes of I-95 to the eastbound lanes of PA Route 291. Prior to 2001, this ramp was the main access to the Philadelphia International Airport, but a new exit connecting the highway directly to the airport terminals has since eased traffic congestion.

After crossing over a small tributary, PA Route 291, now in Philadelphia then turns left off Industrial Highway and onto Bartram Avenue. Prior to October, 2006, the road continued on Industrial Highway past the Airport, but a project to extend a north-south runway has closed off the highway, thus requiring the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to reroute the highway into the present configuration. After the left turn, PA Route 291 then draws up next to the SEPTA R1-Airport rail line, but prior to S. 84th Street, the road diverges off, but not before the line's Eastwick train station, which was constructed in the late 1990s primarily for people employed at the PNC Bank office building located adjacent to the Airport. Past S. 84th Street, the road then turns right onto Island Avenue, goes under I-95, and then turns left back onto Industrial Highway.

After returning onto Industrial Highway, the road then ducks under I-95 for a second time, before crossing over the Schuylkill River on the George C. Platt Memorial Bridge, a four-lane high-level canteliever bridge built back in the 1920's. At the same time the road crosses over the Schuylkill River, it also crosses over the massive Sunoco Oil Refinery that provides Sunoco (along with its operations in Marcus Hook), with the majority of the gasoline used in the Northeast U.S. After crossing the Schuylkill River, PA Route 291 then turns left onto S. 26th Street, and paralleling the main CSX (former Pennsylvania Railroad) freight line to the Delaware Waterfront, PA Route 291 ends with the roadway merging onto I-76 at the Passyunk Avenue/Oregon Avenue interchange.

[edit] Major intersections

County Location Mile[1] Destinations Notes
Delaware Trainer 0.00 US 13 (Post Road) – Chester, Marcus Hook
Chester To US 322 / I-95 / Highland Avenue
To US 322 / Flower Street Former US 322
3.17 PA 320 north (Madison Street)
To US 13 / Morton Avenue
Ridley Township To I-95 / Stewart Avenue
Tinicum Township 6.41 PA 420 north (Wanamaker Avenue) to I-95 – Morton
Industrial Highway, Scott Way – Philadelphia International Airport, Cargo City Former PA 291 east
Philadelphia Philadelphia I-95 south No westbound entrance
84th Street – John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge
To I-95 north / Island Avenue, Bartram Avenue
I-95 south – Chester Interchange
Island Avenue Former PA 291 west
I-95 south – Philadelphia International Airport Interchange; westbound exit and eastbound entrance
George C. Platt Memorial Bridge over the Schuylkill River
To I-76 east (Whitman Bridge) / Penrose Avenue – Sports Complex
Passyunk Avenue, Oregon Avenue Interchange; no eastbound exit
I-76 west (Schuylkill Expressway) – Valley Forge Interchange

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b DeLorme Street Atlas USA 2007. Toggle Measure Tool. Retrieved on July 1, 2007.
  2. ^ PennDOT. Pennsylvania Tourism and Transportation Map [map]. Cartography by Geographic Information Division Bureau of Planning and Research. (2007) Section Back side: Philadelphia and vicinity. Retrieved on 2007-07-01.

[edit] External links

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Road transportation infrastructure of the metro Philadelphia area
Interstates
I-76 • I-176 • I-276 • I-476 • I-676 • I-95 (PA·DE) • I-295 • I-495
U.S. Routes
US 1 • US 13 (PA·DE) • US 30 (PA·NJ) • US 40 (NJ·DE) • US 130 • US 202 (PA·DE) • US 322 (PA·NJ) • US 422
Pennsylvania Routes
PA 3 • PA 23 • PA 29 • PA 32 • PA 63 • PA 73 • PA 100 • PA 113 • PA 132 • PA 152 • PA 232 • PA 252 • PA 263 • PA 291 • PA 309 • PA 313 • PA 320 • PA 332 • PA 352 • PA 363 • PA 401 • PA 413 • PA 420 • PA 452 • PA 463 • PA 532 • PA 611 • PA 663
New Jersey Routes
NJ 38 • NJ 41 • NJ 42 • NJ 44 • NJ 45 • NJ 47 • NJ 48 • NJ 49 • NJ 55 • NJ 70 • NJ 73 • NJ 90 • NJ 168 • NJ 413
Delaware Routes
DE 1 • DE 2 • DE 4 • DE 7 • DE 9 • DE 41 • DE 71 • DE 92 • DE 100 • DE 141 • DE 273 • DE 299 • DE 896
Named roads/streets
Bridges