For almost 50 years the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels in Fulton and Bedford counties have withstood the wind, rain, snow and ice. Whether they stand for another 50 years - and whether they fill the as-yet unfulfilled promise of a hiking and biking trail - remains to be seen.

As it stands, the tunnels and the road are officially closed to the public - yet open in a wink-and-nod manner. There are detailed instructions on how to find the 8.5-mile trail online, and Murray Schrotenboer, a tunnel advocate, regularly runs bicycle tours through them. A sunny summer weekend, he said, will easily draw a few hundred people out to take a walk or ride through the tunnels.

While the status quo appears to work, it won't in the long run. Graffiti and vandalism are on the rise and the tunnels are continuing to deteriorate, even though an engineer gave them a clean bill of health last year. The maintenance areas of the tunnel - huge rooms that sit above their entrances that house the giant wind turbines are marked "no trespassing," but the majority of the doors are rusting off their hinges. Inside there are open pits, once used to lift equipment between floors. Behind the turbines is the access to the air tube above the tunnel - a tube with open holes to the road - some 25 feet below (last year someone, trespassing inside, fell through one of the holes).

"We're doing what we can, we're saving what we can," Schrotenboer said, but the nonprofit that owns the tunnels, the Southern Allegheny Conservancy, is essentially dead. "SACs has kind of run out of money, run out of steam."

Read more:

Tunnel Vision, the story of the Allegheny Mountain tunnels and the turnpike's bid to bypass them.



The abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike Tunnels: Where to find them

In Bedford County, planner Don Schwartz has led the latest leg of a 13-year campaign to rebuild the tunnels, to turn them from a graffiti-laden novelty to a dedicated tourist destination, one that could pump millions of dollars into the local economy of both counties.

The project appears well situated - about two hours from Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Harrisburg - to offer a unique roadside attraction that would put giant balls of yarn to shame, if only the organizations involved could muster the political will to get it done.

Last Thursday was another large step for Schwartz's quest - a tour of the abandoned Rays and Sideling Hill tunnels by a group of state legislators and the commissioners of both counties. The buy-in of both groups will be necessary to once again turn on the lights in the Sideling Hill and Rays Hill tunnels.

Bedford and Fulton County planning commissions give a tour to state senators and representatives of the abandoned tunnels on the old Pennsylvania turnpike between their two counties, April 23, 2015. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

Two things need to happen: The state needs to agree to provide the $4 million to $7 million necessary to improve the trail, while both Bedford and Fulton county officials need to agree to sponsor the project - most likely by forming a joint operating authority that would manage the trail.

Neither Fulton nor Bedford can afford to repair the trail on their own, or indeed, even as a unit. Fulton County is largely rural, with about 15,000 residents (Bedford, at 49,000 has almost the exact same population as Harrisburg).

The counties need the state to support the project financially, and the state needs the counties to agree to make it work. Last week's tour seemed as much about convincing county officials the state was serious as it was convincing the state that the two counties were serious.

And therein lies one of the rubs, and quite possibly one of the reasons the trail has lain dormant for so many years. Although the majority of the trail is in Fulton County, Bedford County is the better positioned to gain economically.

At the eastern end of the trail in Fulton there is little to see; just rolling farms and a few houses along the semi-unimproved road that leads to Route 30, the Lincoln Highway. There are, as of yet, no stores, no supplies, no hotels - no running water or toilet facilities.

Over in Bedford, the western end of the trail drops right into backyard of the confluence of I-70 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a area rife with commercial development, hotels and other amenities.

Development of the trail could greatly benefit those businesses - how much trickles through the tunnels to Fulton is largely unknown (although an economic feasibility study completed last year pegged Fulton's share at 20 percent).

Schwartz said the tunnel project has a Field of Dreams flavor - build it and they (they being tourists) will come. Last Thursday the legislators were twice stopped by bicycle groups touring the tunnels (one group had riders from Elizabethtown, Phoenixville and Nanuet, N.Y.).

Map of the abandoned turnpike:

If fully developed, the study estimates that between 80,000 and 100,000 people might tour through each year, a figure backers think might be low.

"The estimates are we should be getting 100[,000] to 200,000 people per year," Schrotenboer said. "I don't think that's hard at all."

Nor would refurbishing the trail to working order. The old highway is still there, largely in good condition. The tunnels, aside from graffiti, vandalism and minor concrete damage, are still holding the mountain up.

The hard part - if this project is to happen - might be gathering the political will to make it happen. There's a mountain range between Fulton and Bedford counties; whether it can be spanned or bored through remains to be seen.

Bedford and Fulton County planning commissions give a tour to state senators and representatives of the abandoned tunnels on the old Pennsylvania turnpike between their two counties, April 23, 2015. Mark Pynes | mpynes@pennlive.com

When the nearby Lincoln Highway opened to travelers, it ushered in a new age in America; the age of the automobile. Before the turnpike and the interstates were built, the towns that dotted the Lincoln Highway along with Route 66 and their sister roads catered to passing motorists. These first highways, much like the railroads before them, became vital economic lifelines for the rural towns through which they passed.

You can find signs of this today along the Lincoln, including hilltop inns and restaurants and fading roadside attractions. With the advent of the turnpike and interstates these towns became at most pit stops if they weren't bypassed all together.

The western trailhead of the abandoned turnpike is located only a half-mile or so from the Gateway Travel Plaza, located at the confluence of I-70 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is a commercial amalgamation, owned by the family of James Bitner, complete with a diner, gas station, lodging and a RadioShack.

Bitner's family has championed the project from the Breezewood side, providing funding for the economic impact study last year, and he makes no bones about what it could mean to the family's business nor the other businesses around town. These are businesses that have been hard hit, he said, by both the recession and the toll increases of the turnpike in recent years.

"There's a lot at stake for us," he said. "Breezewood needs to change from a way station to a destination."

As he addressed the legislative delegation, asking them to see what he sees waiting in the hills outside the town, Bitner's voice started to crack and it appeared, for a moment, that his emotions might overcome him.

"As you tour the old abandoned turnpike today, ask yourself if the overgrowth, dilapidation and graffiti you see along the route represents the future of Breezewood. We would suggest that after you complete your tour, please drive around and look around town.

"In some areas, it has already started."