PennDOT recommending shorter U.S. 219 route to Maryland, says plans underway to fix Tire Hill Road

Apr. 19—SIPESVILLE, Pa. — PennDOT officials are planning to recommend the shorter of two proposed routes to complete a four-lane U.S. Route 219 from Meyersdale to Maryland.

Work on Route 219 was among more than 30 upcoming road, bridge and sidewalk projects that Pennsylvania transportation officials discussed Thursday in separate sessions in Sipesville and Ebensburg.

PennDOT's recommendation of the Route 219 "E-Shift" route will mark another step forward for the last section of four-lane highway needed to link Somerset County and the Greater Johnstown area to Interstate 68 in Maryland.

Federal transportation officials will issue the final approval after a review process tentatively scheduled to be completed in 2025.

But PennDOT District 9 Assistant Executive Jim Pruss said two elements that federal officials will consider — permitting and public comment — were considered when state officials eyed a recommendation for the final route.

"On the last section of Route 219 we (completed), permitting was a major issue for us," Pruss said, adding that PennDOT worked to find routes that lessened that issue this time around.

As outlined in November, the route PennDOT is now recommending would require fewer bridges over waterways than the other option.

The "E-Shift" path is half a mile shorter and would travel further east of Salisbury than the route dubbed "DU-Shift," which was the other option being considered.

The shorter route, if approved, will also impact less than a tenth of an acre of maple forest, compared to nearly 24 acres that would be impacted by the proposed route further west, PennDOT officials said last fall.

"The input we received from the community and in our public hearings was not even close as far as preference," Pruss said. "It's very much skewed toward" the shorter route.

With final design engineering and right-of-way acquisition funded to occur through 2028, Pruss told attendees of the Sipesville meeting that the state is planning to submit a multimodal transportation application for the final portion of the funding — road construction.

State officials also said Thursday that repaving work on Route 219 in the Berlin area will likely be put out for bid for construction in 2028 — less than a year before work could start on the new section of road.

The section of two-lane Route 219 that the new section of highway will bypass, located in the Salisbury area, will also see safety improvements, Pruss said.

That will include a realignment in mid-2026 to lessen a sharp curve in Summit Township, and separate efforts to improve sight distances on parts of the road that intersect Clark and Ernest Mill roads, PennDOT officials said.

Tire Hill Road

Plans are underway to address a section of Tire Hill Road/state Route 403 near Greenhouse Park that started sinking and was closed to traffic after a severe storm this month, said Joe Casper, a District 9 construction engineer.

PennDOT already planned to add a retaining wall on the corridor to address pre-existing issues, and the closure has state officials working to speed up the process to get work underway.

With luck, they'll be able to get the necessary supplies to fix the road in May, Casper said. If all goes well, the work will be completed in September.

"Right now, we're keeping (that section of road) closed to get utility companies in that area to do relocations (of their lines) before we can start our work," Casper said.

Additional paving and road upgrades on Route 403 between Tire Hill and Hooversville are on track to be completed by November, Casper added.

Bridge fixes

Ten Cambria County bridges will be repaired or replaced in 2024.

That includes rehab work on a span on state Route 53 crossing Laurel Run, a Johnstown Expressway ramp over Bedford Street, and a bridge on Dutch Road north of Loretto that crosses Chest Creek.

Bridge repairs have been a big focus for PennDOT over the past decade in Cambria County.

Nearly 44% of Cambria's state-owned bridges were classified as "poor" in 2015. That total is now down to 17%, with a number of projects set to begin, PennDOT officials said.

Five Somerset County bridges are set to be repaired, three of which are also U.S. Route 219 projects. Another project includes spans along Fort Hill Road. A Cucumber Run bridge project will start this year and continue into 2025.

Many of Cambria County's 2024 roadway projects are along the Mainline corridor. That includes bridge rehabs on Railroad and Oak streets in the South Fork area and other bridge projects in Wilmore, Cresson Township and Gallitzin.

Traffic signal safety upgrades are also planned in Richland Township and the Windber area.

District 9 Executive Vince Greenland said that additional federal funding enabled PennDOT to boost its spending 7% for 2024.

Mild winter weather has also allowed PennDOT crews to save money on purchases of rock salt, anti-skid and other winter materials.

But "plow truck costs almost doubled," Greenland said, noting that the sticker price of a new vehicle is among the many items that are far more expensive in 2024 than in the past.

Concrete is another product whose price has risen since 2020, but PennDOT officials said that won't stop a sidewalk project on Walker and Monroe streets in Garrett Borough from proceeding in 2024.

The upgrade is planned as a "Safe Schools Project" aimed at making the corridor more walkable for students. PennDOT officials said that work is expected to be underway this month and continue into September.