Renaming the road

I've been creating The Barony's history from a previous website and noticed that we used to give directions south from I-80 on ALT 220. Now that the new 220 has opened up northbound over Skytop all the way from Tyrone our stretch of Bald Eagle Valley Rd is no longer labeled ALT 220. In fact it's hard to find a road name on it going north or south. Through most of December we could see a bright light shining at the chiropractor's on Skytop all night long as truckloads of pyrite were moved.

Finally, movement on I-99
POSTED: December 13, 2007 Altoona Mirror

Some central Pennsylvania drivers will be rejoicing today when PennDOT opens sections of Interstate 99.

At last, they will have a quicker, easier and safer commute between Altoona and State College, something that’s been needed for a long time.

Barring any surprises, traffic will start traveling on the northbound lanes between Bald Eagle and Route 322 sometime today. The southbound lanes between Port Matilda and Bald Eagle also will be opened to traffic.

We’re glad to see this because getting to today’s opening has been a frustrating and difficult journey.

Construction of the section between Bald Eagle and Port Matilda was blocked for years and incurred tens of millions of dollars in additional costs after environmental groups repeatedly challenged PennDOT’s decision to build the highway along the mountainside instead of through the valley.

We’d probably be fighting those same battles today, except for the fact that then-U.S. Rep. Bud Shuster inserted a clause into a 1998 federal transportation bill allowing the construction of I-99 to proceed. Without that effort, we wonder if construction even would have started on the Bald Eagle to Port Matilda section.

While the focus of critics was on the section south of Port Matilda, it’s ironic that the real environmental problems cropped up north of there on Skytop Mountain.

It was belatedly discovered that about a million cubic yards of sandstone laced with pyrite was uncovered on Skytop during excavation. The pyrite’s acidic discharge contaminated streams and water supplies in the area, creating a serious environmental problem and delaying the opening of that section of the highway.

Work to move the pyrite to a special containment area or to seal off the pyrite on exposed rock faces continues and is why the southbound lanes of I-99 over Skytop aren’t expected to open until next year. Trucks are using that section of the roadway to move pyrite to a specially constructed entombment area.

While I-99 is far from complete, the sections being opened today are a major advancement because they will divert traffic from a winding section of two-lane road that has been the site of numerous accidents, including some fatalities. That will be a welcome change for motorists.

Now let’s keep our fingers crossed we can get the rest of I-99 opened as soon as possible