Today
Today, the Abandoned Turnpike, as it is commonly known, has become a popular tourist attraction. The PTC sold most of the property to the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy (SAC) for $1 in 2001. The property is managed by Friends of the Pike 2 Bike, a coalition of non-profit groups (including the SAC) to eventually convert the stretch into a bike trail. The property is officially closed to the public, and no motor vehicles are allowed on the property, but riders are free to use it at their own risk. The trail requires helmets and lights. Because this stretch sits on parts of the former right-of-way of the South Pennsylvania Railroad that was never completed but later formed the basis of the mainline turnpike, this makes the Pike2Bike unofficially a rail trail. The PTC still owns a stretch of about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) on the west and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) on the east for maintenance purposes.
The entranceways to the tunnels were in respectable shape through the early 1980s, when vandalism and time began to take their toll; thieves stole even the lettering of the signs of the tunnels sometime between 1981 and 1999. The tunnels themselves are still standing and, despite not having been maintained for decades, are still structurally sound.
A business plan and feasibility study was completed by Gannett Flemming in 2005. It proposed various ideas to make the trail as accessible as possible for cyclists, hikers, roller bladers, and equestrians.
As of November 2007, the trail is in the process of changing ownership to Bedford County. This is in response to the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' need for a governmental body to own the trail before it can give out grants. The Friends of the Pike 2 Bike will continue to run and oversee the trail.
Read more about this topic: Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike
Famous quotes containing the word today:
“You can make children believe whatever you want, and the children of today are the soldiers and mothers of tomorrow.”
—Dudley Nichols, U.S. screenwriter. Jean Renoir. Major Von Keller (Walter Slezak)
“As yesterday and the historical ages are past, as the work of today is present, so some flitting perspectives and demi-experiences of the life that is in nature are in time veritably future, or rather outside of time, perennial, young, divine, in the wind and rain which never die.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Stella Chess (20th century)