Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System

Pittsburgh/Allegheny County Belt System

The Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Belt System color codes miscellaneous county roads to form a unique system of routes in and around the city of Pittsburgh. Unlike many major American cities that utilize number-coded limited-access roads to form belt systems, the belts in the Allegheny County Belt System are not intended to be used as a high-speed routes. Rather, the belt system is to be used as navigational aid for motorists in unfamiliar portions of the county. [cite map |publisher = County of Allegheny |title = Allegheny County Pennsylvania Information Map |accessdate = 2008] Roads that make up the Belt System retain their previous names.

Belts

The five routes (from outermost to innermost) are:

*Red Belt
*Orange Belt
*Yellow Belt
*Green Belt
*Blue Belt

There is also a Purple Belt, which is not part of the original system. [http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~jlin/signs/usa/Pennsylvania/Belt_System/map.gif]

History

The Allegheny County Belt System was developed by Joseph White, an engineer with the Allegheny County Department of Public Works, in the late 1940s as a wayfarer system, using a network of federal, state and municipal roads to offer residents alternative traffic patterns which did not lead to downtown Pittsburgh's congested golden triangle. As such it actually predates the Interstate Highway System developed during the President Dwight D. Eisenhower administration.

The Belt routes were not intended as high speed or limited access roads but instead as a well-defined road system away from the existing major arterials and their congestion.

The construction of the interstate highway system and regional parkways during the late 1950s through the early 1970s initially reduced the use and need of the Belt routes. However as urbanization of the county spread further out from the City of Pittsburgh, the Belt System helped to reduce the effects of suburban congestion. Many of the roads selected over fifty years ago today play key roles in the long-range regional transportation plans for Allegheny County. Many of the roads chosen for the belts have been converted from simple country lanes to urban collector roads and to urban arterials.

In its millennium edition "Pittsburgh Magazine" (published by WQED television), recognized White as one of the 100 most influential people of the Twentieth Century in the Pittsburgh region. Rick Sebak from WQED television also produced a local feature on the Allegheny County Belt System in the 1990s.

The City of Pittsburgh developed a Purple Belt for the downtown area during the mid 1990s using the county system as a guideline.

Composition

The Belt System consists of five beltways; Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red with travel distances of 40 miles, less than 39 miles, 80 miles, 109 miles, and 30 respectively. The Blue and Yellow belts are circular routes beginning and ending at the same points. The Orange Belt was a complete circle until 12 miles of the southernmost stretch (including its entire stretch through Washington County) was decommissioned in the 70's. It still traverses Westmoreland County near New Kensington.

Prior to its acquisition by the Chevron Corporation in 1980, the Gulf Oil Corporation, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, published a map of Allegheny County prominently displaying the Belt System. Currently, Allegheny County produces maps featuring the Belt System.

References

External links

* [http://www.pahighways.com/other/pghbeltsystem.html Information on PAHighways.com]
* [http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~jlin/signs/usa/Pennsylvania/Belt_System/ Marker information]


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