May 2, 2016 2 min read

Starting today, an added 400 miles of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and 400 miles of state highways, including a stretch in Washington and Greene counties, will have increased speed limits of 70 mph.

In Washington and Greene counties, the affected section of highway is a 33-mile stretch of Interstate 79 from the south junction with interstate 70 to the West Virginia border. Previously, speed limits on that part of I-79 were either 55 or 65 mph.

The new posted limits bring the total to nearly 1,000 miles of road with the increased speed allowance since the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Turnpike Commission tested 200 miles of combined roads in 2014.

Nearly the entire turnpike will have a 70 mph limit.

“After we convert the remaining segments of our system, we will have 493 miles posted at 70 mph, almost 90 percent of our 552-mile system,” said Pennsylvania Turnpike CEO Mark Compton.

Areas of the turnpike now posted at 55 mph will remain as such, according to Compton, and those areas include work zones, the five tunnels, mainline toll plazas and the eastern slope of Allegheny Mountain, among others. The exception to the “55 or 70” rule would be where tunnel maintenance is occurring, which would reduce speeds to 40 mph.

The speed limit changes were authorized as part of Act 89, approved by the Legislature in November 2013. The measure called for studies to be conducted before speed limits were raised.