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State police have released details on a four-vehicle crash that tied up traffic Thursday morning on Interstate 99 in Patton Township. According to the report, officers responded to the crash shortly before 9 a.m. to the 71.5 mile marker within the construction zone along the interstate. Troopers reported that James E. Bentz, 60, of Tampa, Fla., was traveling north into the construction zone when he struck a car driven by Christian L. Lamana, 25, of Milroy. Bentz allegedly stated he had been traveling faster than the posted speed and didn’t see traffic moving slower in the construction zone, police said....

The next time you drive through a highway work zone, or past an accident scene or a disabled vehicle, think about Robert Gensimore. A highway foreman for PennDOT, he was struck by a car and killed last week while setting up flares to warn motorists about an accident on Interstate 99 near Altoona. Gensimore was 45. His funeral is this morning. He was like many of us. Married, two kids, star high-school athlete, active in his community as a volunteer firefighter. He was just doing his job when he died. About 90 PennDOT workers have been killed on the job...

It sounds like an oxymoron, but the state Legislature is taking action to help reduce the risk in one of the more dangerous jobs in road maintenance: driving the safety truck. The trucks are fitted with a warning arrow and a crash barrier on the rear. They are driven slowly to provide protection behind crews cutting grass and painting lines. About once a month, one of these truck drivers is injured when a motorist strikes the vehicle. To address that situation and others, the state House passed a bill last week to allow autonomous versions of the vehicle, known as...

New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) officials have announced the section of what is now I-95 in New Jersey from the Scudder Falls Bridge over the Delaware River to the Route 1 Interchange in Mercer County will be redesignated as I-295 in early 2018.This change is part of a larger project in which a new interchange is being constructed to connect I-95 to I-276/Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bristol Township, Pa. The Pennsylvania Turnpike connects to the New Jersey Turnpike at Interchange 6 via the New Jersey Turnpike Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension in Florence, N.J. When the new I-95/Pennsylvania Turnpike interchange...

A crack that closed the Delaware River Bridge between Philadelphia and New Jersey last January has prompted the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to plan repairs to 13 other bridges across the state. The crack in welding material, which created a 2-inch gap in a major truss, was so serious that officials thought they might have to permanently close the span owned by the Pennsylvania and New Jersey turnpikes. As a result of that problem, PennDOT looked for similar issues in other bridges; the repairs will involve drilling out areas where welding occurred to fill improperly drilled holes, called plug welding,...

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt says a glitch in the state’s “motor-voter” process has allowed non-U.S. citizens to register to vote, even though he thinks they did so accidentally. The glitch has had no impact on elections, as the number of people mistakenly registered was small, but Schmidt thinks that statewide there could be many more and he wants the state to review registrations. He also wants it to cross check all active voter registration records against all current PennDOT records containing INS Indicators. Secretary of State Pedro Cortes issued a statement saying PennDOT is changing its...

Dive Brief: The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) has announced the completion of the state's first-ever diverging diamond interchange (DDI), located on Interstate 70, according to Equipment World. The DDI design eliminates left turns across oncoming traffic, improving vehicle flow and decreasing the chance of accidents. The agency also chose the DDI configuration because it could use the former interchange's cloverleaf footprint, reducing the impact of construction on the area. PennDOT said it modified the traditional DDI design slightly. Dive Insight: Design is one way transportation agencies are combating gridlock resulting from increased traffic. Other tools in DOT arsenals are...

A new collection of transportation agencies and universities is taking one small step toward transforming the Rust Belt into a place associated with the future instead of the past. Eleven agencies and institutions located in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have formed the Smart Belt Coalition, which will spur joint efforts on the testing and deployment of autonomous and connected cars. The collaboration comes on the heels of a legislative overhaul of Michigan regulations last month, which have been relaxed to spur the testing of self-driving technology on the state’s public roads. Ohio and Pennsylvania do not have laws on the...

On Thursday all along major highways, midstate motorists might have witnessed PennDOT workers taking on a different task: Crews were instructed to remove the plethora of political signs that have popped up along major highways, including Interstate 81 and routes 11-15, 22-322 and Linglestown Road. This wasn't PennDOT turning partisan, however. The transportation agency says it was just doing its job to keep major highways clear of possible crash-causing distractions and sight obstructions. PennDOT spokesman Greg Penny confirmed his district's political sign-clearing operation conducted in Dauphin and Cumberland counties all day Thursday. But he could not say how many PennDOT...

Slam on the brakes. That's what state lawmakers want to do to increasingly frequent instances of motorists skirting payment of Pennsylvania Turnpike tolls. The problem wouldn't be nearly as prevalent had many of those same legislators years ago taken a detour around the lame-brain idea that directly resulted in turnpike travel becoming significantly more costly. How costly? Pretty soon only Saudi Arabian sheiks will be able to afford the outrageous tolls, though those guys probably prefer to fly their personal planes from Pittsburgh to Breezewood. Those lacking private jet transportation sidestep the tolls in renegade fashion. They fly through toll...

Motorists on Interstate 95 during the Democratic National Convention should be prepared for weight restrictions and ramp closures. PennDot has outlined what drivers on the interstate should expect before, during and after the DNC, which will be held July 25-28 at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia. Here's what you need to know: Open to passenger vehicles Like other highways in the area, I-95 will be open to passenger vehicles. No vehicles weighing more than 5 tons Vehicles that weigh more than five tons won't be permitted on I-95 between Exit 13 (for Interstate 76 West/Route 291/Valley Forge) and...

Pennsylvania will be about $6 billion short of being able to fund all the projects legislators promised their constituents during passage of Act 89, the transportation funding bill of 2013. Secretary Leslie Richards will break the news to the Senate Transportation Committee when she testifies Tuesday, according to a copy of her testimony obtained by the Tribune-Review. Pennsylvania's 12-year transportation plan covers about 2,800 projects at a cost of about $34 billion. But that exceeds the $28 billion in revenue projected to come in for that time frame. “The Corbett administration over promised projects by at least $6 billion compared...

The secretary of PennDOT says he’s confident there won’t be any problems if vehicle registration stickers are eliminated in Pennsylvania. … Some lawmakers expressed concern that such a move could result in lax enforcement, prompting people not to register their vehicles. …

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official says a crew couldn't avoid painting over a dead raccoon when they put new double-yellow lines on a western Pennsylvania road last week. But the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown reports Thursday that a motorist pointed out the mistake before it could be cleaned up. Sean McAfee tells the newspaper he almost wrecked his motorcycle because he was laughing so hard when he saw the freshly painted road kill in Johnstown on Aug. 2.

PennDOT is asking the Obama administration for new signs that better protect the five guys watching the one guy working. Current signs only point out the man at work, said PennDOT representative Stu Hardcleft. "That doesn't really address the other guys standing around shooting the shit and watching him," said Hardcleft. "The motorist should exercise the necessary caution for those folks, too." Last year, two guys watching another guy work were nearly injured by careless motorists. "One guy spilled his coffee," said Hardcleft. "Not just a little bit. It was a complete loss." Hardcleft said another worker in the Philadelphia...

Gov. Rendell says he did not know his transportation department had a 35-person unit that dealt exclusively with legislators' requests until he read about it in Monday's grand jury report. And now that he knows about the unit, Rendell is disbanding it. "A unit like that should never have existed," he said Tuesday. "It's inappropriate." A state investigating grand jury singled out the unit for special criticism in a scathing report on legislative corruption and waste. The "constituent services" unit within the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is part of a network of state employees whose only jobs are to get...

The transportation issues facing Texas Gov. Rick Perry earlier this decade were so severe that it was faster to take back roads from San Antonio to Dallas than Interstate 35. That's akin to taking Route 60 to Pittsburgh International Airport from Downtown to avoid the Parkway West. Perry pushed through a package of highway construction projects driven by public-private partnerships, similar to the long-term lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike sought by Gov. Ed Rendell. Texas' decision to turn to private companies to build and maintain 4,000 miles of highways in key corridors was in response to a business and population...

A 74-year-old woman who state police said caused a fatal crash on Route 581 this summer died last month as a result of cancer. Investigators had sufficient evidence to arrest Joyce G. Case of Upper Allen Twp., probably on a homicide by vehicle charge, in the late July crash that killed Carlisle truck driver Kenny Wallace, 43, Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert said yesterday. The probe ended with Case's death, however, because the dead cannot be prosecuted. "We consider the matter closed," Ebert said. "It's a bad situation all around." Ebert said investigators didn't know Case had terminal cancer...

As the months passed and no one arrived to claim the roadside attraction, Dawn Michaels became increasingly curious. Surely, the portable toilet belonged to someone. But after nearly eight months, Michaels recently suspected that no one was going to return to Rochester Road in Ross to retrieve the Porta-Pottie. It had been cast aside, cruelly abandoned, forced to endure the harsh winter elements on its own. If we were talking about a dog or cat instead of a human waste receptacle, this story would be positively heartbreaking. Suspecting that public money was being wasted, Michaels, 60, of Ross, began investigating....

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A Pennsylvania Department of Transportation maintenance shed will be considered for recognition as a historic place, an honor that would make it harder for PennDOT to widen a busy highway in suburban Philadelphia. The one-story brown brick garage, one of 67 county facilities built in 1936 as part of Gov. Gifford Pinchot's campaign to pave 20,000 miles of rural roads, will be the subject of a $10,000 study to determine if it belongs on the National Register of Historic Places. PennDOT will fund the study, which was ordered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The...