Pennsylvania Route 309
PA Route 309 is a highway which runs for 132 miles (212 km) through Pennsylvania, United States. It runs from the East Oak Lane section of Philadelphia to Bowman Creek, a village in Noxen Township, Wyoming County. Route 309 is a principal route since it runs from the Philadelphia area to The Poconos mountains. This highway was signed in 1968 and was a replacement to U.S. Highway 309, which was decommissioned.
Wyoming Valley
After 16 years of construction, PennDot completed a seven-mile expansion of 309 in 1992, named the Cross Valley Expressway, which begins at Exit 170B off Interstate 81 in Wilkes-Barre and ends in Trucksville, with six highway exits in between which include outlets to portions of W-B and surrounding suburban towns. A bridge over the Susquehanna River connects three city exits with three suburban exits. In Trucksville, the expressway ends yet Route 309 itself still continues into Shavertown and Dallas.
Allentown/Philadelphia
PA-309 roughly parrallels the Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike for most of its duration. Between Philadelphia and Allentown, the road is a 4-lane highway which alternates several times between a heavy-volume arterial road and a limited access freeway. Most of the road is surrounded on either side by large suburban commercial sprawl, particularly in the areas around Montgomeryville and Quakertown. The limited-access portion between Philadelphia and Montgomeryville is called the Fort Washington Expressway. Immediately before reaching the Philadelphia City line, 309 again becomes an arterial road, emptying onto Ogontz Avenue and then following Cheltenham Avenue until its terminus at Broad Street (Pennsylvania State Route 611).
For the most part PA-309 avoids going through towns with the exception of Coopersburg, where it is reduced to a narrower 4-lane road with no turn lanes or shoulders.
Overlapping or multiplexed routes
- U.S. Route 202 from Montgomeryville to Pennsylvania Route 463
- Interstate 78 from Exit 60 to Exit 53
- Pennsylvania Route 443 in South Tamaqua
- Interstate 81 from Exit 165 to Exit 170
External links
- PennDOT's 309Online Website, with construction updates