What a day...
I'm at the family home in Allentown. I'm heading off for Pittsburgh soon. As has been widely reported, getting across the state is ugly. In the eastern part of the state, I-78 is closed; I-80 is closed; I-81 is closed between those two; and I-76, the PA Turnpike, is closed between Reading and Harrisburg due to a hazmat tanker truck overturning, with a detour posted online. The Turnpike is toll-free until they get the other interstates reopened. (Those parts of the Turnpike that aren't closed, of course.)
It looks like I will be going out US-222 to Reading, then out US-422 or US-322 to Harrisburg. At that point I'll decide how to proceed further west.
FWIW, I appear to be at loose ends all evening once I get to Pittsburgh. Anyone up for getting together?
ETA 0045 Saturday morning: Finally got to Pittsburgh, *just now*, so it's just as well that nobody was free. Backup on US-222 stretched from Trexlertown to Reading (that's 25-plus miles). Backup on "old 22" parallelling I-78 went from Kuhnsville to Krumsville (about 10 miles). I ended up going north on PA-100 to PA-309 north, which were nicely clear. Turned onto PA-143 south, and the road conditions went to hell. Struggled back to old 22 in Lenhartsville and had mostly clear driving from there to Hamburg. The southbound ways out of Hamburg were inexplicably at a complete standstill. Eventually got turned around, crossed the Schuylkill on old 22 and picked my way up to PA-61 from there; clear driving on 61 down to the 222 bypass (formerly known as The Road To Nowhere). By this time they had gotten the westbound lanes of the Turnpike open again, so I decided to cut down to the Turnpike. The best laid plans... Accident out near Shillington caused a 5-mile backup on 222. Ditched onto a back way to get to 422, and took more state routes and "former state routes" out to the Lancaster/Lebanon exit of the Turnpike. Said routes were thankfully mostly clear but had both slowpokes and total maniacs out there. Once I got on the Turnpike, there was a massive clog caused by the ramp to the first service area backing up well onto the highway. Similar ramp backups caused even more massive clogs at the Harrisburg Airport and Carlisle interchanges; the other service areas beyond Carlisle also had ramp backups, but they got progressivly less bad. Since I-76 was the only realistic east-west way across PA, I'm not surprised at the number of trucks, but *every* service area was completely packed with trucks, including the shoulders of the ramp back on to the highway -- and every single roadside pull-over area had at least two trucks parked in it (more, if more would fit). It took me until after 9 PM to get past the Carlisle interchange (about 170 miles away from the Pittsburgh exit). But I'm in Pittsburgh now.
It looks like I will be going out US-222 to Reading, then out US-422 or US-322 to Harrisburg. At that point I'll decide how to proceed further west.
FWIW, I appear to be at loose ends all evening once I get to Pittsburgh. Anyone up for getting together?
ETA 0045 Saturday morning: Finally got to Pittsburgh, *just now*, so it's just as well that nobody was free. Backup on US-222 stretched from Trexlertown to Reading (that's 25-plus miles). Backup on "old 22" parallelling I-78 went from Kuhnsville to Krumsville (about 10 miles). I ended up going north on PA-100 to PA-309 north, which were nicely clear. Turned onto PA-143 south, and the road conditions went to hell. Struggled back to old 22 in Lenhartsville and had mostly clear driving from there to Hamburg. The southbound ways out of Hamburg were inexplicably at a complete standstill. Eventually got turned around, crossed the Schuylkill on old 22 and picked my way up to PA-61 from there; clear driving on 61 down to the 222 bypass (formerly known as The Road To Nowhere). By this time they had gotten the westbound lanes of the Turnpike open again, so I decided to cut down to the Turnpike. The best laid plans... Accident out near Shillington caused a 5-mile backup on 222. Ditched onto a back way to get to 422, and took more state routes and "former state routes" out to the Lancaster/Lebanon exit of the Turnpike. Said routes were thankfully mostly clear but had both slowpokes and total maniacs out there. Once I got on the Turnpike, there was a massive clog caused by the ramp to the first service area backing up well onto the highway. Similar ramp backups caused even more massive clogs at the Harrisburg Airport and Carlisle interchanges; the other service areas beyond Carlisle also had ramp backups, but they got progressivly less bad. Since I-76 was the only realistic east-west way across PA, I'm not surprised at the number of trucks, but *every* service area was completely packed with trucks, including the shoulders of the ramp back on to the highway -- and every single roadside pull-over area had at least two trucks parked in it (more, if more would fit). It took me until after 9 PM to get past the Carlisle interchange (about 170 miles away from the Pittsburgh exit). But I'm in Pittsburgh now.