Years ago there were only stop signs here for people going north and south on Rt. 403 into Strongstown. There were a number of accidents at this intersection, including fatals. After the body count kept rising and some appeals and protesting were done, PennDOT finally decided to put in some flashing lights. After the rates were raised on the PA Turnpike some years back there was a noticable increase in the number of 18 wheelers using Rt. 422. There is a regular herd of the critters at the present time. And then there are the tri-axle dump trucks which seem to proliferate like rabbits in this area. Now there's the exciting prospect of hundreds of trucks -- some hauling fly-ash from power stations to the south and making their way north on Rt. 403 and a host of others hauling acid rock from Centre County coming west on Rt. 422 from Ebensburg and this mob of trucks will be converging at this intersection and then proceeding north on Rt. 403 to that site which has been referred to as the Centre County "toilet!" Are you beginning to sense why families in this area are screaming "Foul!" to the likes of PennDOT and DEP people? Oh, as Detective Columbo would say, "There's just one more thing!" A number of Amish families have moved into this area and are traveling about in their buggies on a regular basis -- has PennDOT calculated how fast the tri-axle dump truck driver can stop his machine when it is loaded with around 20 tons of material (give or take, depending on whether he wants to risk the trip while being overloaded) and he comes around a bend in the road and finds himself right on top of an Amish family in their horse drawn buggy? Well what happens when a gnat hits the windshield of an 18 wheeler rolling along on I-80 between Brookville and Clarion at about 75 or 80 miles per hour -- which is about what some of them do, because when I have been driving at 65 I have gotten passed by some of those rigs as though I was in grandma's favorite gear!

Ah, the friendly intersection at Bethel -- hardly anything quite like it anywhere! First, notice to the left of the school bus waiting patiently to make a left turn, you will see 3 white crosses stuck in the ground as a memorial. Some months ago a teen ager ran the stop sign here and slammed into a van on Rt. 422 killing a mother and her 2 young children. The husband and father was critically injured but by a miracle managed to survive the accident. This is a chaotic intersection with school buses coming and going -- down Cardiff road in Nanty Glo are the Blacklick Valley Junion/Senior High School and the Elementary School. Also morning hours and afternoon hours when people are traveling to and from work, it gets real interesting here. As you can see there are trucks up and moving about in this place. This area is at times shrouded in fog due to elevation which makes for further adventure at this intersection. Now throw a few hundred more tri-axles into the mix here which will haul acid rock from Centre County and it's going to be pure bedlam with a dash of insanity thrown in as well! There have been other fatals here also, but apparently the body count isn't quite high enough yet for PennDOT to move on to hanging some flashing caution and stop lights at this place!

Now here is another interesting ingredient -- travel west about .3 mile from the intersection which has the 3 crosses at one corner and you have started down grade -- before you know it you come on to a road which turns right off of Rt. 422. There are tri-axles traveling back and forth on that road which proceeds to the village of Colver where a co-gen plant is located -- activity related to the plant means tri-axle dump traffic, which means entering and exiting Rt. 422! If, after you have passed the Cardiff Rd. intersection you decide to put the "pedal to the metal," as some are quite inclined to do, as you head west, suddenly you are to a tri-axle slowed down as the driver attempts to turn on to the road going to the co-gen plant! Can you see it now as an acid rock loaded truck starts to move out and comes upon one of his "brothers" entering or leaving the co-gen road -- could be messy since it has been well demonstrated that the law of inertia kicks in when one moves at a high rate of speed and one can't stop on a dime when a crisis calls for it!

One of our daughters-in-law was rear ended a few years ago by a truck as she was waiting to make a left turn on to the road to Colver where her parents live. Our infant grandson was in his car seat in the back seat of the vehicle. Another miracle -- they both survived -- not all people do when they have an encounter with a tri-axle!

Finally we come to an intersection of growing notoriety for a number of reasons. This is where the 4 lane section of Rt. 219 north and south intersects with a 4 lane section of Rt. 422 just a few tenths of mile from the Bishop Carroll Schools, Central Cambria Schools, Admiral Peary Vo-Tech School and the borough of Ebensburg, county seat of Cambria County where a bunch of lawyers hang out with some running ads encouraging you to sue somebody over something! About the only thing they haven't covered in their list of possibilities is a hang nail, but that is probably just an oversight -- they'll think of it eventually!

The history of this intersection is a bit interesting. Originally the plan was to put in place a perfect clover leaf design so that there would be no need for any cross-over traffic in any of the lanes. As construction got under way and the grading of the exit and entrance lanes was taking place, it happened to be election year. The local rep in the U.S. Congress was in trouble in his re-election bid. For some strange reason, things seemed to be speeded up and plans were changed for the intersection. Just a short time before election a big celebration took place as the new section of Rt. 219 was opened with the rep on hand to take a lot of credit for a new section of 4 lane highway which is but a few miles long as it heads toward the village of Carrolltown to the north!

The bottom photo which was taken when for a few brief seconds no traffic was in view shows one of the original clover leaf ramps which would have taken traffic traveling south on Rt. 219 and would have made possible an exit with no cross over on active traffic lanes. As it stands now, traffic going into Ebensburg has to exit at a point just west of where this photo was taken -- they have to cross over the 2 west bound lanes and then merge into the east bound lanes headed into Ebensburg -- at certain hours of the day with school buses running and work traffic on the move....well, you figure it out how you would handle it! Now if you want to see how it really should be as originally planned, jump on Rt. 219 south here and go but a couple of miles or less and you will come to the interchange at Rt. 22 east - west and Rt. 219 north - south. Here you will see the "perfect" interchange, clover leaf and all -- there when exiting and entering you will either take a straight ramp or a curved one as you shift from one highway to the other -- at this one, no crossing over lanes to get to the others as it is at the "killer" at Rts. 422 & 219! Politics is not only full up with hypocrisy and greed, but it has left a bloody trail in more ways than one -- and then these people whine and cry when an informed public becomes nauseated, skeptical and cynical of their practices while in office! Etch this in your memory -- some people would still be alive today if the interchange at Rts. 422 and 219 would have been constructed as it should have been!

But take a look at the 2 upper photos -- see where the 18 wheeler is waiting to pull out? There have been fatal accidents here as people attempted to cross over 2 east bound lanes and get on the west bound lanes beyond! This is another place where trucks are like rabbits -- all over the place! But that's not the only problem -- it was felt (or wildly dreamed by PennDOT people and ruling powers in Ebensburg) that this stretch of Rt. 219 would enable trucks east and west bound on Rt. 422 to "dog leg" over to or come from Rt. 22 and thus bypass Ebensburg, allowing the borough to be peaceful and quiet with the absence of the trucks. But guess what? As you can see, there are trucks that still run through Ebensburg going east or west -- the reason? There is extra distance to do the "dog leg" plus there are 3 traffic lights on Rt. 22 and it also is insane with traffic, especially during the work traffic flow hours. By going through Ebensburg the truckers still only have 3 traffic lights to deal with and will reach Rt. 422 or Rt. 22, depending on direction more quickly.

Now here's the "rhubarb" -- what are PennDOT's plans for "encouraging" their hundreds of acid rock laden trucks and drivers to avoid going through Ebensburg -- take the "dog leg" and get stacked up on an exit ramp at a stop sign, PATIENTLY wait to get across 2 east bound lanes of traffic, get on Rt. 422 west and casually motor on to the Centre County designated "toilet" site in Indiana County?

I want to go to the Index

The Belsano "Dog Leg!"

Rt. 271 north and south is a "dog leg" situation in Belsano -- photos above were taken where 271 comes to Rt. 422 at the Belsano Post Office -- traffic is always buzzing here -- some truck drivers as well as drivers of cars and pickup trucks sometimes forget that there are brakes on their vehicles -- so they come tearing down through Belsano at 50 or 60 MPH at times -- just hold on to your hat when you go to the post office and hold on to the rail as you go up the steps -- one of those loaded Peterbilts could blow you off your feet! And then there are those cumbersome log trucks that move about in this area -- sort of like a giant wooly mammoth from days of very ancient times -- they move about slowly and often turn on to Rt. 271 north here at the Post Office as do a number of school buses which make frequent stops to load or unload students at all grade levels. Crossing the intersection here at the post office never fails to be high adventure, and could cause your insurance agent to come close to a heart attack if he saw you trying to get from one side to the other!

If you are traveling Rt. 271 south and you have managed to get on to Rt. 422 at the Post Office, then you travel east for a short distance and you come to the east end of the "dog leg" where Rt. 271 takes off from Rt. 422 toward Twin Rocks, Nanty Glo and points south. But as you will notice by the photo there are tri-axles in the business of hauling some stuff from the Vintondale area -- they make their way to Rt. 271 at the village of Twin Rocks -- some may go south toward Nanty Glo and others come north to Belsano as you see one doing here. At Twin Rocks there are stop signs as these fellows come to 271 but it seems they don't want to stop a lot of the time since it's an upgrade haul with a load to the north and south stopsigns! As you will observe, Belsano is on a downhill swing when traffic is moving west on Rt. 422, and as already stated, seems the 35 MPH posted speed limit doesn't mean a whole lot much of the time. Only when for a few limited hours within a week the township police monitor the traffic is a sense of sanity restored, but only for a little while. When the acid rock haulers come storming through town we'll have a real circus! And since no high level PennDOT people live in Belsano along Rt. 422 a person with an IQ level of 65 can figure out what controls are going to take place!