List of State Routes in Pennsylvania
PA Route (left) and Quadrant Route (right) signs
|Notes:||All routes are assigned State Route (SR X) numbers, usually corresponding to the signed numbers. State Routes are generally state-maintained.|
|Interstates:||Interstate X (I-X)|
|US Routes:||U.S. Route X (US X)|
|State:||Pennsylvania Route X (PA Route X; PA X)|
In the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, state highways are maintained by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Each is assigned a four-digit State Route (SR) number in the present Location Referencing System. Traffic Routes are signed as Interstate Highways, U.S. Routes and Pennsylvania Routes (PA Routes), and are prefixed with one to three zeros to give a four-digit number. PA Routes are also called Pennsylvania Traffic Routes, and formerly State Highway Routes. The symbol used for the signage of state routes is an outline of the keystone after Pennsylvania's nickname. Four-digit State Routes are unsigned, except on small white reference markers at intersections, and are only unique within each county. They are assigned as follows:
- 0001-0999: Traffic Routes, the first 0 is usually not existent on the markers
- 1001-4999: Quadrant Routes, assigned by rough quadrant in the county, going clockwise from northeast (1) to northwest (4)
- 6001-6999: Relocated Traffic Routes (including alternate lanes such as local lanes or HOV lanes), assigned a number equal to the old number plus 6000
- 7001-7999: turned back, abandoned, or null routes (7076, 7276, 7376, 7576, 7476, and 7043 are used for sections of the Pennsylvania Turnpike)
- 8001-8999: interchanges, with one number per interchange
- 9101-9199: wye connections
- 9201-9299: rest areas
- 9301-9399: truck escape ramps
- 9401-9499: other roadways
Underneath, there is a larger typeface number, usually in multiples of 10, which is used to mark the highway in increments. More specifically, they are spaced every half-mile. To calculate the distance, simply divide the number by 20. For example, a sign reading a 240 means it is at mile 12. The numbers start either from the south or west of the county or state line or beginning of the highway.
Bannered routes are not assigned State Route numbers corresponding to their signed numbers, but are instead marked along other routes, mostly Quadrant Routes.
Occasionally, a signed Traffic Route number does not match the State Route, usually in the case of an extension or relocation. (One example is Pennsylvania Route 3, which uses a one-way pair of Quadrant Routes in downtown Philadelphia.) A different number can also be used to avoid conflicts between different types — for instance, signed Pennsylvania Route 380 is actually State Route 400, renumbered ca. 1973 when Interstate 81E was renumbered Interstate 380. The majority of, but not all, signed Traffic Routes are state-maintained.
In 1911, when the Sproul Road Bill was passed, a large number of Legislative Routes (LR) were assigned. These were the primary internal numbering until the present Location Referencing System was adopted in 1987. See also list of Legislative Routes in Pennsylvania.
- Pennsylvania Route 1: Lincoln Highway
- Pennsylvania Route 2: Lackawanna Trail
- Pennsylvania Route 3: William Penn Highway
- Pennsylvania Route 4: Susquehanna Trail
- Pennsylvania Route 5: Lakes-to-Sea Highway
- Pennsylvania Route 6: Old Monument Trail (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 7: Roosevelt Highway
- Pennsylvania Route 8: William Flinn Highway (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 9: Yellowstone Trail
- Pennsylvania Route 10?: Buffalo-Pittsburgh Highway (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 11: National Pike
- Pennsylvania Route 12: Baltimore Pike
- Pennsylvania Route 44: Buchanan Highway (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 19: Lewistown - Scranton - Narrowsburg, NY (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 88: Perry Highway (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 17: Benjamin Franklin Highway (after 1924)
- Pennsylvania Route 64: Williamsport - Cumberland, MD (after 1924)
Soon more numbers were assigned, including three-digit numbers for branches, like Pennsylvania Route 272 from Pennsylvania Route 72. The United States Numbered Highways were assigned in late 1926, and in 1928 State Routes concurrent with U.S. Routes were removed, while those that conflicted with U.S. Routes were assigned new numbers. The establishment of the Interstate Highway System in 1959 resulted in a small renumbering in 1961.
Since Pennsylvania first introduced numbered traffic routes in 1924, a keystone shape has been used, in reference to Pennsylvania being the "Keystone State". The signs originally said "Penna" (a common abbreviation for Pennsylvania at the time), followed by the route number in block-style numbering in a keystone cutout. In the mid 1950s, the signs were modified to have "PA" instead of "Penna", with the lone exception being the mainline Pennsylvania Turnpike (which continues to use "Penna" today for both the mainline, the Northeast Extension, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission logo); additionally, the numbers were made more round and the signs were made larger in order to be more legible while driving, and the keystone shape itself remained a cutout. By the late 1960s, as U.S. Routes were beginning to be made on rectangular cutouts with the U.S.-style shield painted onto them instead of the shield cutout in most states outside of California, the same was done with the keystone. The state initials were removed altogether and while the numbers remained rounded, were standardized into Highway Gothic, which was becoming the standard for the Interstate Highway System. Most of the 1950s vintage signs were replaced with the newer rectangular cutout with the painted-on keystone by the early 1970s, though a very few remain in scattered places on non-decommissioned roads. Pennsylvania has used the painted-on keystone signs since.
List of State Routes
Quadrant routes by county
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pennsylvania Quadrant Route shields.|
- Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Historic Transportation Maps
- Pennsylvania Department of Transportation - PDF (2.05 MiB)
- "Penndot - Pennsylvania Stateroads 200901". Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
- For instance, the PDF (2.17 MiB, FTP) indicates that Pennsylvania Route 551 north of Pulaski, near the north edge of the county is — except for the bridge over Buchanan Creek — locally maintained as Township Route 649. This is confirmed by the VideoLog. A PDF (5.97 MiB, FTP) shows that it was once state-maintained all the way as Legislative Route 649.
- U.S. 22 - The William Penn Highway
- These are all listed on the back of the PDF (5.75 MiB, FTP), though by then the original numbers were gone. This 1927 map shows the original numbers.