Officials weigh plans for tunnel

Tunnel usage has increased 25 percent over the past 10 years.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Traffic through the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Allegheny Mountain Tunnel will become so heavy by 2025 that officials are reconsidering an old plan to either build a bypass over the mountain, or a new tunnel through it.
The state conducted a study in 2000 that looked at the options for the 65-year-old, highly traveled Somerset County tunnel, about 125 miles east of Pittsburgh.
But the study was shelved because of the options' high cost -- $91 million to $150 million -- and opposition to a bypass from a hunting and fishing club and environmentalists, who didn't like the proposed 220-foot-deep cut in the mountain range.
"At some point, we'll have to deal with the problem, because the traffic demand will be greater than the tunnel capacity," said turnpike Chief Executive Officer Joe Brimmeier. "We're going to reopen the study, gather more recent data and make an educated decision no later than 2007 about where we want to go."
Last year, the average daily use of the tunnel was 30,648 vehicles, a 25 percent increase over a decade earlier.
Traffic was so heavy through the tunnel this past Thanksgiving that state police had to close the eastbound lanes several times to thin out traffic.
Repairs to be made
The state is already moving forward with plans to improve the roadway's safety.
The state will make about $50 million in repairs to the tunnel, and rebuild and straighten the dangerous, six miles of S-curves on the east side of the tunnel.
The accident rate on that stretch of turnpike is one-third higher than on the rest of the 360-mile roadway, with 43 accidents a year, on average, between 1997 and 2000, according to the state police.
While the work on the tunnel -- including replacing the tunnel's lights, improving its infrastructure and undergoing a detailed inspection -- will begin in 2006, straightening the curves isn't expected to start until 2007.
Though the state wants to decide by 2007 whether a bypass or a new tunnel should be pursued, with all the engineering work that would need to be done, neither option could be built for at least eight years, Brimmeier said.
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